Welcome to the Warzone
by Grenadier 658244-526455
Summary: Portals through time and space are appearing at random on Remnant. Time to mix up the natural order of things and see what happens. Story starts off horrible but does improve. Gets a bit dark, so bring a Flashlight or lasgun. Should update at a "weeklyish" schedule. Note has some Pseudo crossover moments like random prayers to the God Emperor, or copying a gun from STALKER.
1. Prologue

AN: I was kinda bored in math today so I decided to do a really strange version of a self insert. Which is basically me in four years if none of my real plans work out. Truefuly I would avoid joining the army under Combat Arms, witch is we're all your frontline grunts get placed. But really nothing says fun like drone strikes and ambushes in the Middle East. Also since this is slightly in the future I will be taking slight liberties with such things as body armor design/effectiveness and weapon choice. I will also take guess at things I find strange, like the lack of shells from a LOT of guns. oh and one really big thing Remnant is about eh 75% the size of Terra. This is why I'm not giving us earthlings Aura. We have armor, and that is it. Keeps it a bit more deadly when bullets do kill. Oh and RWBY belongs to rooster teeth, and if I ever mention something else it belongs to that universe too. Any ways onto my pathetic attempt at a prologue.

10-24-2020 Afghanistan.

A large army convoy was moving through the sands. It contained almost the entire 101st US Airborne. They had been driving to a new home, Thule Air base(I know it's in Denmark but it moved. Blame Trump.) Why high command said they had to drive was up for debate. They had maybe half a day of travel left when insurgents attacked for the seventh time. It started with when a rocket screamed its death threat to the turret of an Abrams. The tank shrugged off the hit and began to turn to engage. The 30 plus Humvees swung there Pintle mounts around. Soon tracer and grenades lit up the area where the first rocket had come from. The LAVs opened up with there 20 mike mikes as more rockets flew in. The flaming projectiles were soon joined by heavy caliber machine gun fire. The 101st and its escort fired back with every thing they had.

For a while the fight was quite even till a loud Wruzz was heard. Suddenly the an entire line of Humvees was lit up by 30mm AP rounds. Later investigation believes this to be a GAU-8, nobody is sure how this weapon was gained ,used, or mounted. Next to the weapon in the dunes, an Arab whispers a prayer to Allah to take these heathens from this earth. A rocket leaves his meager cover and detonated in front of a swerving Humvee. The car does not emerge and the insurgent cheers, for his prayers have been answered. A split second after a 20mm shell hits and spreads his flesh across the sand.

Team RWBY was a strange group. Composed of two groups of almost completely opposite personalities, like the childish and hyperactive Ruby Rose and the reserved and "proper" Weiss Schnee. It was today that they had decided to go exploring in the Emerald forest, mostly on a whim from Ruby, the team's leader. About midway throughout their adventure, they we Interrupted by a huge pack of Ursa. Unfortunately for the Grimm, the huntress were a bit zealous in their attacks leavening the poor monsters little more than flaming smears on the ground with bits of bone here and there. Most of the blame could be shifted to Yang, well After a Ursa got a lucky slash that got a small clump of hair.

As the team ran from the raging inferno they saw a very odd site. A spinning, twisting vortex of silver… Stuff. "Ok am I the only one who is seeing this?" Asked Yang. "I see it sis." Said Ruby as she moved closer to the hole in reality and heard something. It sounded like gunfire, a lot of heavy gunfire, it wasn't the common popping sound of most guns hunters use, it was a much deeper thumping sound pierced by sharp cracks with a delicate layer of explosions."Ruby I don't think you should go near that." Warned Blake. She replied "I'll be fine." As she inched closer to the anomaly she could make out voices shouting orders. Then a low growling noise started to rise above the other noises. Peaking deep into the vortex she could just make out sand and smoke and something else. Wait was that a car!? With a small burst of speed she jumped to the side of the portal as a massive armored car flew through.


	2. Blood and guts

Alright small AN I don't own anything besides our mysterious OC. This chapter accurately describes what a 30mm AP round can do to a person. It is not pretty. Oh before I forget this will probaly update weekly for a while before switching to a slower pace. This is because I've already written the next seven or so chapters. *checks list* and that seems to be all folks enjoy.

It landed and made a small breaking turn. "What in the hell? How does that happen!" Weiss shrieked from her new perch in a tree with Blake and Yang clinging to her. Ruby was surprisingly calm for nearly getting hit by a humvee. She walked closer to the car and noticed its roof turret and windows were stained a worrisome red, that along with the massive amount of holes and dents told her that whoever was driving it needed help. "Guys I think they need help!" Running over to a door she tried to pull it open, but it remained locked tight. Reverting to plan b she cut it off with Crescent Rose. "Ruby wait! It could be a trap!" Said Yang as she reached out but stopped as Blood had poured out when the door had opened, staining Ruby's clothes and hands red.

Peering inside the car she saw a horrifying scene. in the car were five Massive men all in uniforms of desert colors with gear practically dripping off them. Nearly all were dead were they lay. One was nearly missing his head, a large caliber round having claimed it from him. Another had most of his chest gone, his intestines spilling around his boots. The third was crumpled at the base of the turret well, several bullet holes were stitched up a bloody line on his chest, a small trail of blood left his mouth. The two in front weren't much better. The passenger had his right arm torn messily from his body, bits of bone and sinew trailed from the wound. The only one still breathing was the driver, But life seemed to be slowly running away from him as he lay slumped over the stealing wheel. A Large and growing red stain covered his left arm and shoulder illustrating his fading life. She dashed over to the other side while yelling to her sister."Yang! Quickly call Beacon. This man's really hurt." As gently as she could she removed him from the humvee and placed him on the ground nearby. It was not an easy task, he was close to three hundred pounds!

Blake and Weiss stared in shock at the sight of the man. he was close to seven and a half feet tall. a large amount scaring covered his face, the largest went from the corner of his mouth going all the way to the left side of his jawbone, almost like he had tried to eat a knife. Blake recovered first and sprinted to the car. She looked inside for less then a second before vomiting what was formerly her lunch into the grass ." Dear God." She said. Her voice barely above a whisper, she had seen some fucked up shit as part of the white fang, but this was beyond anything she had thought capable my man. Blake while having no idea who made the car knew it was military, the armor and Mounted gun just screamed it to her. "Blake." Ruby yelled dragging the faunus out of her thoughts." Look for a Medkit in the truck I need something to stop him from bleeding out." " on it Ruby." She replied mentally steeling herself before she climbed inside the car and looked for anything that resembled a Medkit. After a few seconds she found a large yellow bag with IFAK written on the front. Tossing it to Ruby she bolted out of the truck. Ruby had already opened it and pulled out a bandage. She tried to place the bandage but the man's armor was in the way. She quickly turned to Weiss. "Help me get this armor off him" Weiss remained where she was to shocked to move. Ruby tried to pull the paldron off, but it remained fastened to the main vest, but it had shifted enough to let her plunge a fat syringe filled with tiny sponges into the wound, slowing the bleeding to a trickle. Thankfully the Medevac Bullhead chose that time to show up. The two medics quickly rushed the man on the transport with RWBY trailing behind them. The two worked to stabilize the man before they got to Beacon. After a few minutes of flying they arrived at the landing pad and hopefully in time to keep Him alive.


	3. Uh Houston we may have a problem

AN Hi there again decided to get some more of the story out after rewriting quite a bit. This chapter should double the word count and set the rough size of following chapters. Oh and I've moved this to M because of our OC's mouth and eh the strange amount of bodies that are going to start piling up. Before I forget I only own my OC, and any other that appear. ONWARDS!

. Quickly dodging the running medics they noticed the truck sitting next to them still leaking blood. Apparently the bullhead had towed it here too. " I really hope he makes it" said Ruby as she was ensnared in a hug from Yang. " Don't worry sis, those were just flesh wounds." Blake and Weiss were looking at the car they had found another set of medics walked forward with four stretchers with Black bags on them and slowly loaded the bodies of the crew on them. The morbid task done they slowly walked the massive remains back to the infirmary. "Miss Rose. Do you care to tell us what happened?" The girls spun around to see Ozpin and Goodwitch standing there. Ruby spoke up" Well we were exploring the Emerald forest for some extra credit, and then we saw the silver thing and then that car flew out of it. And then the blood, there was so much blood." Ruby fell silent after that. " we tried to perform first aid but the medical bullhead arrived first." Finished Blake. "Well I will go meet our new guest. I am sorry you had to see any of that. I will inform you if, when he wakes up. You are excused from any duties you held this afternoon." "Thank you professor." Replied Ruby as she dashed back to her team's dorm.

"So what was that?" Was the question that was circulating through the heads of team RWBY. "They were obviously military of some sort." Said Blake. " Yes, but I've never seen any groups like that. Those patches don't belong to any kingdom and there uniforms were just cloth. they had no armor except for that vest and helmet! Who would let their soldiers go into battle that ill equipped?." Stated an angry Weiss, she hated not knowing things. "Weiss is right. Do any of you know a 101st U.S. Airborne?" " No clue Yang. What does airborne even mean? I also just don't understand their wounds. It's like the bullets it went right through there auras."said Blake, she shuddered at the memory, she had killed before as White Fang but it was never like that." That's a good point. From the little i saw, every thing seemed oversized. That big gun on the roof had shell casings the size of my fist. Who would need that big of a round? My sweetheart doesn't even have anything close." The conversation carried on till close to ten o'clock before Ruby's scroll chimed. "The man's awake now, we saved him!" Within a second the team was racing to the infirmary.

About two hours earlier, the man had awoken. "well give it to me straight doc how bad is it?" with a small sigh, ozpin answered "I am not your doctor but, you will be fine the shoulder plate caught the shrapnel, a piece struck a major artery through. "Shit. did anyone else make it? Fred only took a few to the chest." A sadness gathered at the edges of Ozpin's face. "When team RWBY found you were the only one still breathing." "damnit, guess I'll need to write some letters. where am I? am I back in the States now?" "So Mr. Krauss what were you doing in the forest." At this point a look of uneasiness came across Krauss face."I was on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Where am I. And how do you know my name." He said as he reached for a nonexistent weapon. "You're at Beacon Academy outside of Vale. You wear your name on that necklace, along with your uniform." Said Ozpin holding up a pair of dog tags on the back of one was a Stylized I, and the other had an Aquila crudely Scratched into it. "No what Country, am I still in Afghanistan, Did you move me to Iraq, Syria, Pakistan? Where the hell on Earth am I." Krauss tried to rise up out of the bed he was in. Ozpin quickly drew his cane and placed its tip at Krauss's throat. "Do not force my hand. I will not let you endanger my people. " Ozpin's voice was as hard as ice, and Krauss's was just as hard back."So I'm a POW. My Battalion will come looking for me, and no matter what hole you terrorist fucks are hiding in they will find you." "You are not a prisoner." "Says the man with a sword at my throat." "Do not do anything… Rash." "Fine." With a slight flourish Ozpin reunited his sword with its scabbard. "Can you show me a map?" "Ozpin produced a scroll from a pocket toggled it to a world map and handed to him."Um what? This is a world map right." Yes The entirety of Remnant is on that." "The hell is Remnant. Is it some set of islands? Show me a map of Earth." Ozpin didn't really understand what Krauss was getting at."William. Why do you want to see a map of the moon?" " What are you talking about the moon is named Luna? Earth is the the only planet with human… Life… Shitfuck." Ozpin really had lost him at this point. Then Krauss started to laugh. It was unnerving watching the man. His previously clear brown eyes had seemingly gained an almost cracked look. His scars distorted his grin into something inhuman. After several minutes Krauss calmed down, but kept the crazed smile. "Well whoever you are, say hello to your first alien! I come in peace by the way." Ozpin's mind clicked ,and connected the dots. He let out a chuckle. "Welcome to Remnant Mr. Krauss. I'm sorry for your circumstances but I'll do what I can to help." "Thank you. I'll try to return the favor as often as I can. Um I'd like to ask is there any ongoing conflicts you is going? as much as the army was my last choice I took an oath to protect the innocent. well and the States, but I think that's a bit void." A small grin cracked Ozpin's poker face. "While we have been enjoying a amazing 80 years of peace, we " Krauss interjected." I give it six months. " What?" " You have six months till a new war, the only reason why it's been so long back home is MAD, And now China has invaded Afghanistan the world's about to ignite in another world war. Human nature." " What do you mean M.A.D.?" " Current US and Chinese Nuclear stockpiles are close to twelve thousand warheads, and don't forget Russia and other Nations. No clue about China but our missiles are at close to ten thousand simulated firings and are ready to launch on demand. 15 minutes and the world gets a new ice age. You press the button, you won't live to see the impact." "I'm afraid I still don't understand." Krauss was getting a little annoyed at Ozpin's lack of understanding." Eh well if I'm going to explain this I'll need an hour or two, I need to explain close to a 110 years of history and human stupidity." Ozpin glanced down at a pocket watch he kept. " we should have enough time."

And so Krauss launched into the epic that is human history starting at WWI and II, the holocaust, the proxy wars of the Cold War era, the civil rights movement. The Cuban missile crisis. The brushfire wars in the Middle East, The unceasing terrorist attacks, and ending with the recent Chinese push into the Middle East. After letting it sink in for a bit, Ozpin spoke. "It seems the old saying 'Do not look under the bed for monsters.' Rings a bit too true in your world." A look of guilt crossed Krauss's face." I wish I could say different, but you're right." "Allow me to explain a bit about Remnant then, unlike your world, here Humanity and the Faunus face real monsters, The Creatures of Grimm." Ozpin toggled the scroll from the map to some pictures of assorted Grimm subtypes. "They are creatures of pure darkness. And are a constant threat, along with as you put it 'The Human Condition', it puts us in a very precarious position." Ozpin went on to explain the great walled kingdoms of Vale, Mantle, Vacuo, and Minstrel, and the accompanying hunter Academies. Finishing with the collapse of Mantel and the changing political climate. Near the end Krauss asked a very important question."Who is Grimm?" Ozpin looked around and scowled and said cryptically " I will have further words in less open circumstances." After digesting the new world he found himself in. "Kinda fucked up you use kids but I've seen and heard it done much worse. Anyways I take it you would like me to join up as a hunter." Ozpin nodded " Well I'm no TIER-1 but I'll do my best to help." "I'm glad to hear it. You're a bit older than most but your age is not unheard of for a first year." Ozpin glanced at his watch. "It's getting latter pthen I thought, I have something to ask of you though." " I'll be fine I've taken worse hits, what do you need?" "I Promised Team RWBY they would be able to visit you after you woke up." "Sir I'll be fine. Just allow me to get dressed first. In the Humvee trunk there should be a bag marked G 658244-526455 Krauss, That's got 80% of my gear in it." Ozpin reach below the bed and pulled a large duffle bag out."This one I take it?" Grabbing the bag Krauss quickly changed out of the gown and into a pair of ACU's. "Alright I'm ready to meet my saviors." "They will be here in a few minutes. I want ask why did you join the army? You don't seem like the type." "Eh to be fair I never joined the mainline force. I joined the reserves to help pay for college, learning to be an engineer is expensive and I couldn't get any scholarships. Unfortunately our fantastic president Trump called up the reserves putting my five years of schooling behind and five years in the army ahead." Krauss had pulled a small book titled Baneblade while they waited for RWBY to arrive.


	4. I Thought You'd be Taller

AN: **Hi again guys here's your daily does of poorly written FanFiction. Um nothing really all that important happens besides Krauss meeting RWBY and Ozpin asking some questions. Oh before I forget Krauss will not be joining RWBY, his entrance exam will be giveing him some teammates that area little "Close to home". Um please give me a review, I need to know what I'm horribly butchering thanks.**

After a few minutes the girls arrived. Ruby ,being well Ruby, practically flew through the door and nearly tackled Krauss in a hug. "Oh my Oum your ok !Youwerebleedingandyouwerentreally breathingandeveryonelesswasdead." Soon her speech became completely incomprehensible. "Um miss." Ruby looked up realized what she was doing and jumped away. "sorry!" She squeaked. "No harm done" with a slight clearing of the throat Krauss continued "I'd like to thank you all for saving me, I would have bled out in the Humvee if it wasn't for you. So If there is anything you need I'll see what I can do to help." Blake noticed That Krauss seemed almost frail with out all the extra bulk his gear gave him, and asked." Are you sure you should be up so soon, you lost a lot of blood." The team's faces Immediately fell at the memory of the blood soaked jeep. "I'll be fine. Six months ago I took a IED launched piece of rebar to the gut and look at me now." Krauss said reassuringly, well tried to say that is. No matter how you say it getting nearly killed isn't reassuring. "That doesn't seem possible." Stated Weiss. With a slight groan Krauss replied." Oh believe me I know damn medics almost didn't clear me for the drop. " he mockingly quoted" No Sargent, you can't jump out of a plane until your stomach works. 'Dicks'" "What drop?" Asked Yang. "Oh I'm part of the 101st Airborne." The girls looked at him questioningly. " That means instead of getting driven or walking into an AO we jump out of planes." Clarified Krauss. "But wouldn't put enormous stress on your aura?" asked Weiss. "Nope" answered Krauss."How? That's impossible!" Krauss smirked "Cause I nor any other member of earth possess it." The members of team RWBY were completely flabbergasted."Wait your from the moon? Professor are you sure he is ok?" Asked a skeptical Wiess." He is sound of mind miss Schee. He is not from the moon though. His planet is called Earth, and is currently experiencing a Third World War." Yang asked. "What how can you start a world wide war?" He answered "Useally by one man doing something incredibly stupid."Blake was puzzled. "Wouldn't that just bring the Grimm to your gates?" Krauss smirked."Nope, we don't have to worry about that." "How?" "There are no Grimm, haven't seen a single one before I got here." "Wow that sounds like a paradise." Said Ruby. "Believe me you have it much better, you had what, two major wars in the last thousand years, I can't even count how many we've had in the last hundred. World War One had nearly 40 million casualties. Twenty years later two had almost three times that."Looks of horror crossed the assembled girls. That was over a quarter of the population of Remnant."Monsters? You look to the wilds. I on the other hand look into the mirror." Krauss finished that statement with hint of bitterness in his voice. "How can you jump out of planes then that's like 200 feet up?" Asked yang" Um that's a pretty low altitude for a jump. I don't even think I could do that it's just too fast. I'm usually at 25000 feet for a HALO. Getting to the point we just use parachutes." Explained Krauss. "Ok, that sounds incredibly risky. Wouldn't you have to unequip yourself and gather your gear?" Stated Blake. "Yep, back when the airborne first formed, the chute would take two minutes to get off and another to assemble your rifle, that is if you knew what you were doing, now it's down to 90 seconds. And yes a lot of us die, we have the second highest casualty rate next to EOD techs, but it's worth it." The girls looked at him questioningly " Explosive Ordnance Disposal." Answered Ozpin. "They are in charge of any explosives, that include defusing them." Krauss raised an eyebrow at the headmaster. Ozpin winked back. He turned back to the girls. "Any ways before I part paths to take care of some matters with Ozpin I'd like to know your names. " "oh I'm Yang Ruby's older sister." 'Sisters? My brother and me don't look similar but still.' "Weiss Schnee" 'What? Why is she named white snow, it's fitting but still.' Pondered Krauss. "Ruby Rose! At your service." 'You seem a bit young.' "Blake." "Nice to meet you all. As for me Sergeant (Wilhelm)William Krauss. Though I mainly go by Krauss I'll respond to Sergeant and dumbass too." Finished Krauss as a smile ghosted over his face. Ozpin stepped up." I believe it is best if your rest now. I have some things to go over with Mr Krauss." Yang turned around to Ruby to discover was a sleep in one of the chairs. "I think that's a good idea professor. come on guys let's go I'm exhausted." And so with their unconscious leader team RWBY made their retreat.

Krauss looked looked through his bag and pulled out a strange looking contraption. "What is that device Krauss?" Asked Ozpin. Finding a small cord leading out, Krauss plugged it into a cell phone he had pulled from a separate pouch on the bag." This little beauty here is a antenna I made out of some old cans and a car battery I rigged to charge my phone or in most cases our field radio." Lifting the combined apparatus near an open window, Krauss shifted it so it could rest on the window sill."And I think I have a signal! Witch I really have yet to figure out how this even works." Stated a very puzzled Krauss. Ozpin inspected the homemade antenna, which appeared to be two paint cans and was held together with large amounts of duct tape and solder. "And what do you intend to do with that scroll?" Krauss looked up. "Um call my parents, tell them I'm not KIA. Probably my brother too, the prick needs to have his dreams squashed." after getting several error messages, Krauss Looked through settings. Ozpin glanced at his watch. "it is now one in the morning. I was wondering if you would like to get some rest and continue the next day?" "Oh I didn't think of jet lag. I'll see if I can get some rest, thank you for your hospitality." Ozpin walked out of the room and flipped a light switch, and the room descended into a gloom. Krauss looked around and uttered "Imperator servabunt me quia dereliquit me." As he placed his hands over his heart in the shape of the Aquilla. After his small plea, he drifted off to sleep.

The following day and night passed before Krauss woke. After showering and changing into a fresh uniform he went to see Ozpin again. After being bounced through the head nurse and Glynda, he arrived in Ozpin's office. He walked up to the cogdesk (its a desk and there's cogs everywhere.)and saluted. "Sir you requested my presence." Ozpin sighed. "Please I am not your commanding officer you have no need to salute, please have a seat." Dropping the salute, Krauss sat down. "What is it that you require sir?" "Since you are new in this world I would like to appoint someone as a guide for you would act as a shadow to them. For the days after you are cleared that is." Krauss thought about it for a second. "Who would you pick for these duties?" " Most likely team RWBY." Krauss looked at Ozpin directly in the eye."What's other purpose do you have?" Ozpin blinked." You're more perceptive than you look. I was hoping you could help them cope with your arrival, opening a HUMVEE ,was it, to find four dead men is a bit past what anyone here is trained for." Krauss leaned forwards in his chair." So I'm supposed to act like a shrink for them." "Eh yes I hope you understand." "I'll do it, they're still kids, they should not have to deal with that." Krauss got up to leave and walked to the door. He paused as if remembering something. "Sir I would like to ask you if you could make a set of flags, as I understand it Hammer 2-3 has yet to be buried." Ozpin looked up " I presume this is some tradition with service members?" "Yes usually there's a three volloy salute too, but I'm the only one left." "I can get those flags made, what would they look like?" Krauss reached to one of the patches on his shoulder and ripped the Velcro off. On it lied the the greyscaled colors of the United States. "Fifty white stars on a field of blue, thirteen stripes, seven red, six white. One for each casket." " Ozpin looked at patch and nodded."I'll see it done. Your men will see their final respects." Krauss let out a breath neither noticed he was holding."Thank you so much. I'll take my leave now I wasn't really cleared yet." Ozpin simply nodded.


	5. His Final Regards

**AN: Hi there unfoutnetly this is a little short cause I'm not quite confident in a li ttle skirmish I wrote right after. The song lyrics are supposed to be centered but due to formatting issues, I can't seem to do it. Anyways, Krauss pays respects to his squad. I am aware that the Military generaly buried it's dead but the theatrics were too good to pass up. Sit back and try to comprehend the drivel that is chapter 5 and tell me what I screwed up. EDIT ok I've fixed my poor choice at dialogue and updated the fight. Expect Krauss's fights to be boing, there pratical, and thought out, only engaging in Melee as a last resort, unlike Remnant were Melee is the primary form of combat.**

The following day and night passed before Krauss woke. After changing into a fresh uniform he went to see Ozpin again. After being bounced through the head nurse and Glynda, he arrived in Ozpin's office. He walked up to the cogdesk (its a desk and there's cogs everywhere.)and saluted. "Sir you requested my presence." Ozpin sighed. "Please I am not your commanding officer you have no need to salute, please have a seat." Dropping the salute, Krauss sat down. "What is it that you require sir?" "Since you are new in this world I would like to appoint someone as a guide for you would act as a shadow to them. For the day you are cleared that is." Krauss thought about it for a second. "Who would you pick for these duties?" " Most likely team RWBY." Krauss looked at Ozpin directly in the eye."What's other purpose do you have?" Ozpin blinked." You're more perceptive than you look. I was hoping you could help them cope with your arrival, opening a HUMVEE ,was it, to find four dead men is a bit past what anyone here is trained for." Krauss leaned forwards in his chair." So I'm supposed to act like a shrink for them." "Eh yes I hope you understand." "I'll do it, they're still kids, they should not have to deal with that." Krauss got up to leave and walked to the door. He paused as if remembering something. "Sir I would like to ask you if you could make a set of flags, as I understand it Hammer 2-3 has yet to be buried." Ozpin looked up " I presume this is some tradition with service members?" "Yes usually there's a three volley salute too, but I'm the only one left." "I can get those flags made, what would they look like?" Krauss reached to one of the patches on his shoulder and ripped the Velcro off. On it lied the the greyscaled colors of the United States. "Fifty white stars on a field of blue, thirteen stripes, seven red, six white. One for each casket." " Ozpin looked at patch and nodded."I'll see it done. Your men will see their final respects." Krauss let out a breath neither noticed he was holding."Thank you so much. I'll take my leave now I wasn't really cleared yet." Ozpin simply nodded.

The funeral Krauss had arranged for the members of his squad was held the next day at sunset. At the edge of the cliff overlooking the Emerald forest, four morgue boxes were placed on pyres with the colors draped over them. Only person present besides Krauss was Ozpin. Krauss had for some reason had his dress uniform in that duffle of his, and was currently wearing it. Ozpin had donated four swords similar in style to the one Krauss currently wore.(Yes NCOs and some officers still have swords, but they're just part of the dress I believe NCOs can wear there's about base as part of their duty uniform.) Ozpin stood next to him in his old uniform, A white high collared ensemble with crimson epaulets and a small array of medals on his chest. A torch blazed in his left hand while his cane was griped the other. They simply stood there for what seemed the longest time before Krauss started to sing.

"Day is done, gone the sun

From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky

All is well, safely rest

God is nigh.

Fading light dims the sight

And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright

From afar, drawing near

Falls the night.

Thanks and praise for our days

Neath the sun, 'neath the stars', 'neath the sky'

As we go, this we know

God is nigh."

(Butterfield's Lubye, or more popularly known as Taps.)

Krauss was not expecting was for Ozpin to start a song of his own let alone a song that shouldn't exist here.

"Eine Kugel kam geflogen:

Gilt's mir oder gilt es dir?

Ihn hat es weggerissen,

Er liegt zu meinen Füßen

Als wär's ein Stück von mir.

Will mir die Hand noch reichen,

Derweil ich eben lad.

Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,

Bleib du im ew'gen Leben

Mein guter Kamerad!"

(Rough translation is My Comrade.)

And on that finally note Krauss drew his sword and pointed it skywords. His face was calm but his mind was racing.'How does he know German, let alone a funeral lament!'. Ozpin stepped forward and brought the lit torch he was holding down on each of the pyres as each man lit Krauss kept his sword high and unwavering. As those caskets burned the smoke lingered, seaming to gather slowly around the marksman. Suddenly in a glittering arc Krauss twirled the saber to place it in front of his face in a imitation of a European salute. And as the blade glistened in the roaring pyres, the smoke swept up and back. For the briefest of moments the lone airborne gained wings of the blackest night. The black wings giving Krauss the appearance of a vengeful angel guiding the fallen to their final rest. Ozpin placed a closed fist over his heart in a salute. The two men stood there frozen in the dusk as Krauss watched his men burn away. There ashes and burning embers drifting slowly through the air off the cliff.

After an hour the fires had burned down to nothing but the two remained locked in there thoughts. It was close to 8:30 when Goodwitch finally noticed them missing. After an hour of searching she found them still standing guard over the flickering ashes and embers. She didn't really know what to do. There was obviously something going on between the two men. "William, the h." She stopped when a saber flashed in the pale light of the broken moon as Krauss brought it to a ready position aimed at Glynda. He froze for a split second. Suddenly a look of realization appeared in his eyes as he quickly returned the sword to its scabbard."Christ! Sorry Miss I was lost in thought." Glynda nodded" It's fine. losing brothers in arms is hard. Though I must insist you return to the infirmary." "Alright, Gute nacht vermissen." And with that he walked back. Later that night a fannus student went walking by the same spot. To this day swears she saw an A bloodied, gold armored, angel helping men out of the ashes, and gently guiding them sky with the light of his flaming sword. Said student admits she was high at the time but still the legend persists.

Three days after the funeral Krauss was fully healed. The first thing he did when he got out of the infirmary was go to the gym, grabbing his full combat load along with his saber. A recent shift in US doctrine had gone away with the use of intermediate rounds, like the lightweight 5.56, and brought back the heavier killing rounds, such as the 7.62. During the switch, Reports began showing a lot of wounds suffered were the results of shrapnel hitting limbs and not direct impacts. So the US Army invested a few million into pioneering full coverage armors of a wearable weight. The result was the Combat Operation Medium Armor system, or Coma. The new armor included leg, arm, and waist pieces that would take 7.62 fire quite well, the old SAPI plates were upgraded to take multiple full size rounds. The upgrades decreased casualties by a massive 67%. Unfortunately the new system proved to still be quite heavy weighing in at almost 60 pounds, 20 pounds more than the last generation of armored plate carriers. Most servicemen and women said it was well worth the extra weight. The additional space for MOLLE webbing allowed most units to use smaller kit bags and leave more options available to the individual soldier's preferences.

Krauss began to shadow "box" with his saber and The Old lessons learned through HEMA classes and sparring with friends slowly returned to his form. The Originally slow and clumsy strikes became faster and more accurate, the M45 in his off hand wiping up and clicking dry every few swings to place the nonexistent opposition on the ground. About two minutes into the routine, he pulled a target out to practice his edge alignment. Soon bits of the target littered the floor. After an hour and a half of practice Krauss ran a few miles on the track. Feeling strangely not quite out of breath, he decided to get in some practice with some weights. He loaded a bar with 25 pounds at one end and ran through some shoulder exercises, tossing it from hand to hand, slowly twirling it over his head. (Look up Indian Gada Training.) He got a good hour in before his arms were too sore to continue. He looked at his sidearm and rifle, and realized he hadn't gotten any real shooting in for close to half a month. He decided to head down to the range. Looking at his scroll Ozpin had given him he saw it was about half a mile away. Jogging there to screw with his breathing, he had not expected to run into Ruby. Literally.

"Scheiße! You ok Miss Rose?" He said as he reached down to haul her up. " oh I'm fine! Just didn't see you there. What were you doing down here?" Krauss shifted the sling on his M14. "Bit of target pratice, haven't gotten much recently." "Oh I was just about to test some upgrades on Crescent Rose my self." The two walked into the range, which was empty. Krauss was mildly interested in its layout. Instead of the booth setup that you'd find on Earth, Beacon had something closer to walled off rooms with Holographic targets. "What does your weapon do?" Asked Ruby. "What? It accelerates small pieces of metal to high speeds to kill a target. Just like any other guns." He stated a little confused at Ruby's question. "No I mean does it transform into something like an ax, or sword." Krauss unslung His rifle and cocked it twice ejecting a 7.62 and handed it to her. "Remember when I said I don't have aura?"Ruby nodded. "Well what's the point of trying to get close to someone when a single round can kill you. The only multi use weapons I've seen were my former squad's under barrel grenade launcher, and some spec ops guy had mounted a really small shotgun underneath his gun." She handed the round back."Aww that means you don't use mechashift." Krauss asked "Mechashift?" A glimmer of, Well something sprung into Ruby's eyes. She quickly pulled Crescent Rose from her back and expanded it."Throne above! That thing is massive!" Glancing down the shaft he noticed a magazine poking out." Um is that a magazine?" "Yep it's my very own a scythe with a integrated high impact sniper rifle I call her Crescent Rose!" Krauss just stared for a few seconds."wait you made that!" Ruby nodded." Of all the combos I've seen and heard of that sounds the least practical." Now Krauss stupidly failed to realize that he had basically insulted Ruby's child. Ruby smiled dangerously. She dashed over to the controls for the rooms targets pressed a few buttons and started a simulation. Ruby muttered "Impractical? I show him." A half dozen belwolves appeared. Krauss quickly ducked out of the room and stood near the window. The targets charged. Swinging her scythe in an upwards arc she impaled the the first target with a pull of the trigger she cut the target in half. The next wolf had most of its torso blasted from a pair of shells. A third tried to sneak up on her, it was immediately met with the spear tip at the butt of the shaft. the stab accompanied by the recoil of firing went straight through the wolf and out its back. Swinging the weapon to smack blunt side into another target, the corpus of the previous victim flew off at the end and knocked the final target into a wall. Turning to face the last victim she jumped at a loud bang. Krauss had snuck back through the door and was holstering his pistol. Ruby yelled "Hey that was my kill!" "Got to be faster Немного Красный." "Hun?" "I changed languages again didn't I." Ruby nodded. "That always annoyed the hell out of everyone it's hard enough when I do with two languages, but with vier полностью le lingue, it's almost impossible." Krauss continued slipping in and out of German, Italian, Russian and English attempting to explain something. Ruby had no idea what he was saying.

Eventually Krauss stopped his rant and walked up to the target controller. He hit the replay button. Walking back to the center of the room Krauss pulled his 45 out and pulled his saber from its sheath. After a few seconds, the Beowolves appeared. Quickly fixing his aim on the lead one he squeezed the trigger, a .45 rocketed out and bit the hologram dead in the center of its chest. Numbers 2 and 3 met a similar fate, collapsing a comfortable distance away. the fourth one lept and went to bring a clawed hand down on Krauss. with a slapping motion Krauss whacked the hand away with his saber. the Grimm landed awkwardly and was unable to stop Krauss's kick witch flipped it on its back the Colt barked twice and plastered the ground with skull. Number 5 tried to go for a low swipe. The blow connected and sent Krauss to the ground. "Not this time." Muttered Krauss. The muzzle of the colt meet the chin of the hologram and fired. As he scrambled to his feet, he spotted the last target. He brought his pistol to bear only to realize the slide was locked back. Quickly depressing the slide lock and shoving it in his chest holster, He Switched hands and raised the saber. The hologram charged. he brought the saber down in a sweeping cut near the neck. It connected and cut deep, nearly decapitating the target. The almost headless corpse was suddenly flung to the side, it hit the far wall with a thud. "That was kind of impressive." Said Ruby. She folded her scythe back into its compact form. " you're not too bad yourself miss Rose. Never would I think I'd see someone using a scythe in combat." " I wanted to ask why'd you stopped using your pistol?" Taking the M45 from its holster Krauss reloaded it, leaving the chamber empty."I was out of ammo. There was no way I could have changed magazines fast enough." " But you only fired like seven shots!" "Yep that's pretty standard for .45 ACP In fact it hasn't changed in over a hundred years." Ruby was puzzled. "You don't use a dust mag?" " A what? " you know a dust mag! Solid crystal dust that you shave bits off and accelerate." (Think Mass Effect, it's the only way I can explain Ren, Blake, Pyrrha, Coco, White Fang guns having limitless ammo and not eject shells.) Krauss's reply was a predictable "Ruby my world has no dust." "Oh I kinda forgot that." She stated dejectedly. "Well it was nice talking to you, I have to go now." With that Krauss adjusted his sling and walked off.


	6. I Was Not Expecting That

**AN: Hello again. Got this new chapter up. I took the advice of a reviewer (TopHatGuy) and changed the formatting to the dialogue. Let me know if this makes it easier to read. Here Krauss gets to go though Initation. While most people tend to put OCs on team RWBY, Krauss gets a team ... Closer to home. Well read, review, and don't let the Reich Bite.**

By End of the week Krauss was cleared to undergo Beacon's entrance exams. Ozpin gave Krauss a small speech at the cliff edge.

"Those who wish themselves to be Hunters must prove their worth. Through whatever means possible they show their duty to the people of Remnant. The Grimm feed off your fear and sadness, do not let them, or you will die."

Krauss pulled at his webbing ensuring it was tight. He had placed his rifle away in its bag and ditched his machete in favor of a nasty 10 inch Bayonet. After verifying his gear as in order he gave Ozpin a thumbs up and said

"A wise man once said to me. 'We all feel fear but some of us just say 'fuck it.' "

And with that Krauss tapped the latch with his foot and was launched in the air.

He spun a bit on the launch but soon stabilized his flight. At the apex of his flight he pulled the ripcord and let the chute unfurl. As his descent slowed to survivable speeds he looked for the temple. After Steering himself as close to the temple as possible he landed in a small clearing. He quickly ditched the parachute and weapon bag, marked it for pickup, checked his bearing and walked off into the forest.

After a five or six minutes, Krauss met his first opponents a small pack of Beowolves. The Grimm had yet to notice him.

"Let's give you a bit of freedom."

Aiming down the sights he centered them on the largest wolf. The trigger was squeezed and a 7.62 rocketed out of the barrel with a crack, Milliseconds after leaving it collided with the bone mask of the grim. The Jacketed round shattered the bone and tumbled through its brain pan and left out the back taking a large portion of its skull with it. This gained the attention of the other three Beowolves. With a roar they charged Krauss. His aim snapped to the farthest creature and fired twice. The pair of rounds streaked down range and struck true blowing good sized holes in its chest and throat. Letting another pair of rounds at the second wolf , the two killed it instantly. The third Beowolves was upon him befor he could bring his rifle to bear on it. Taking a back hand to the chest Krauss stumbled back a few steps. As the wolf wound up for another strike, Krauss recovered and slammed his bayonet into the neck of the beowolf. He fired once to help pull the blade out.

"Nice try asshole"

. Realigning himself with his objective he pushed on.

Out of all the blue he heard something wrong. Gunfire. 'I know Ozpin said I'd be taking this alone, better go check on this.' He toggled his radio to the frequency that Ozpin told him was Beacon's E band

" Ozpin I thought you said I was the only one in the forest. I'm hearing gunfire and lots of it." Ozpin's distorted voice came back.

"You were the only one I sent, though group of eighteen have found themselves half a mile from your position. You need to link up with them, they are facing increasing bad odds."

"wilco"

With that Krauss took off at a fast jog. As he ran he could swear he heard the ping of en-bloc clips. Within two minutes he spotted the source of the noise.

Krauss POV

I whisper"what the fuck?" And nearly dropped my rifle in disbelief. Standing in the middle of the large clearing where six soldiers in olive drab and field grey. Several bodies lay among them. They were firing into a small pack of Ursa. I had already been transported to some fantasy world so how hard could time time traveling nazis and G.I.s really be. I ran to the group to assist but before reaching them an Ursa got a German and flung him into a tree, well through a tree that is. A paratrooper bought it before we brought down the Ursa inside there line. I was quite happy to see the 1919 and MG42 the were using. They were probably the only reason why they were holding their ground, bolt actions just wouldn't cut it. I yelled

"Fire on my target! "

hosing down the largest of the demonic bears with automatic fire. An American Lieutenant slapped his Machine Gunner and got him to redirect his fire, the 30-06s quickly shredded the Ursa. This left two targets. We quickly tore the bears apart. The remaining personnel were two Lieutenants and two machine gunners.

"So that was a thing." The American gunner said to no one he turned to me. "So uh who are you?"

"That would be a long story. look we're going to attract more of those creatures if we stick around, I can get us a ride out of the fore."

I was interrupted by a gunshot. I turned to see the German Lieutenant. Dead on the ground, missing his face from the exit wound, and the MG man with a C96 pointed at his head.

( _German) "What the fuck did you just do that for!"_

He simply pointed at the man's collar tabs. Looking closer I could pick out the twin lightning bolts on it. _"My actions are completely justified! You have have no idea the sins that man committed!"_

 _"I know about the damn death camps and the other bullshit it does not mean you get to execute someone!"_

The Lieutenant spoke up

"Sergeant I'm pulling rank you need to get us the hell out of here."

I turned to him, about to give him a piece of my mind.

"Now Sergeant! that is an order!"

fine fuck it, we're all probably going to die here anyway.

" _Beacon hammer 2-3 We need medical evac now."_

the radio squawked back to life

"Krauss, we don't understand."

I chose that moment to facepalm, I asked.

" Was I?"

"Ja"."

"Beacon this is hammer 2-3 requesting Medevac. I found your new guests, be advised were going to need a quite a few bags."

With a slight sigh the responder replied

"Shit, all right we're sending a bullhead to your location. ETA five minutes, you be safe soon."

Precisely three minutes later life decided to screw them over. This time it was in the form of a large nevermore. It was maybe half the size of the one RWBY and JNPR killed during their initiation, but it made it no less deadly. As implemented by the sudden appearances for feathers in the ground. One had hit the corpse of a GI and cut him clean in half. Unfortunately for the bird, the soldiers were quite pissed and happened to have a M67 90mm rifle with them. The two G.I.s pulled the gun from under its former user, and loaded the weapon. Meanwhile Krauss and the German unleashed as brilliant display of tracer fire from the two MGs. The nevermore hovered just outside the effective range of the two MGs but well within the AT gun's. The Sergeant cried "JONATHAN! LIGHT THAT FUCKER UP!" The rifle went up and settled its crosshairs on the winged menace. A small click was heard, followed by an ear splitting crack as the round flew to meet the nevermore. The HE round flew into and blew most of its lower chest out in a impressive fireball. As the smoke cleared In A blast of wind. They saw the nevermore was still flying. The bird was now VERY angry, oh and it was on fire too. Lovely. The bullhead came to the rescue though with its Chaingun and shooed the flaming monstrosity off. The dead were quickly wrapped in sheets and loaded in the waiting transport.

"Sergeant. You have some explaining to do."

Krauss let out a sigh. "You guys are from 1944 right?"

"Yes that is correct? Why, are you from the future?" Asked Wilham the remaining German Fallschirmjager. He held that classic Aryan look and was the youngest of the group at 17. "Um yes. 2020." " so we're in the future?" "Eh no.. I think we're in a completely different world." Jonathan, the American MG man, looked down at the white sheets between them. "What killed them then? We didn't stand a chance."

"Ozpin told me there called The creatures of Grimm, there a problem infesting this world like wars infest Terra. Oh and before I forget, I'll need to fill you in on several years of human idiocy and innovation."

And so Krauss filled them in on the Cold War, forwards. As they arrived at Beacon. They found a not too happy landing party.

Goodwitch was absolutely livid. The first year students had just watched several men get mutilated and killed thanks to Krauss and his damned helmet camera. She had told Ozpin that having the students And that Wilhelm had executed one of them! And for some reason they were ok with it! She found the arriving bullhead And shouted

"What the hell were you doing! And you!" She pointed at Wilhelm. " You just Executed one of your men!"

Krauss moved to intercept the raging teacher from his new allies. "It may not seem like it but what Wilhelm did was completely justified, that bastard was SS."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!"

Thankfully Ozpin showed up at that moment and save the soldiers from a messy death."It means something incredibly important to The people of earth and for very good reason too."

"There is no reason to"

Ozpin interjected with steel in his voice."Yes there is. I will explain it in private. As for you three welcome to Beacon academy, I am it's headmaster, Ozpin. I understand you are from a different era entirely. I would like to offer you a place here so you could learn about the world you inhabit. You would have been assigned a team but you already seem to work well together."

He turned to our Sargeant." Krauss how do you feel about a promotion? "

Krauss paled"No. not after what happened with Sun Knife."

He turned to Adam. "Lieutenant, are you willing to lead these three? "

Adam Saluted."Don't know about the kruat but I'll do my best sir."

The gears in Ozpin's head had finally come full circle" What are your names?"

" Adam McCarthy 2nd Lieutenant of the 101st airborne." said Adam extending a hand.

"a pleasure." said Ozpin as he shook his hand.

" Jonathan Browning. PFC of the 101st airborne." Ozpin shook his hand. finally Wilhelm was left.

"Oberjäger(Sergeant Equivalente) Wilhelm Studet of the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Division.

Ozpin smiled "Gentlemen, I believe I will enjoy the next four years immensely. I will arange that your dead are properly cared for, and honored suitably."


	7. How does this work again?

**AN: Hey guys sorry for not getting this up yesterday, I needed to bring a 25% up to a 60% in a class so it left no time for proofreading and uploading. Mostly just world building at this point, though a special guest appears latter on. So read and tell me what you think. Can't fix what I'm not aware is broken.**

The conversation between the men dragged on for a bit as they were assigned a room along with other necessities like toiletries and food. The team was unnamed at the moment, but would think of something in the meantime. There Room was DC-3, the irony was not lost on The four paratroopers. The room was usually unneeded and until a few hours ago was used a storage for uniforms. Thus it lacked the updated beds and window most other rooms had, instead they had three sets of bunks built into the walls, similar to a ship. At one corner was a door that lead into a closet where the group's spare uniforms now hung. In the center was a table large enough to set six, but was a bit small for the four paratroopers. On the wall next to door were carved the names Specialist Fred Henderson, Corporal Matthew Collins, PFC Josh Konrad, and PFC Henry Noete, the names of Krauss's former squad. Covering most of the remaining wall space where weapon racks that Ozpin had given them. Currently the only weapons not in there rack was the M67, That monstrosity was placed above the doorway. Krauss's disassembled M14, which lay on the table currently being cleaned by its owner. And everyone's sidearms, which were all holstered on their person. They had decided on calling themselves Fireteam Airborne after their former role. The Fireteam relaxed in their room for a bit. Krauss cleaning his sidearm, the other 101st played cards, and Wilhelm was reading Baneblade, a book Krauss had loaned him. A conversation between the 101st revolved around "acquiring" a 55 gallon drum for the making of a "Hobo Fire" with the express purpose of making home cooked meals from the remaining C-rations. Wilhelm claimed that it would taste shit. (It did)

They had finished unpacking their meager possessions an hour ago, which consisted of almost purely weapons ,excluding Krauss's duffle. Which held some spare uniforms a few books his own laptop and his GI TACPAD. And dear God did they have a lot of guns they had :

one MG42, six FG42s, a Kar98, one M67 AT Rifle, two Thompsons, A M1919A6, one B.A.R., five Garands, 21 pistols of assorted manufacturer, two SCAR-Hs, a M240 Bravo, the M2 on the Humvee, and a M14SE. Oh and knives, a lot of knives and other small bladed weapons. That along with enough ammo for a large platoon, insured the Grimm would regret more than a few life choices. As far as Fireteam Airborne was concerned they were ready for deployment.

It was a good ten minutes before Krauss broke the silence.

" So any of you guys know different languages? I know Italiano, Русские, Deutsch, and English."

"I know a bit of German and most of Italian." Replied Adam.

"Same here" said Jonathan.

"No Russian, but I know Italiano and English well enough.." chimed Wilhelm. Adam smiled at the potential uses of two completely unknown language.

"Oh what about Alphabets, I know Norse Runic." Krauss asked the group shook their heads. "No one, really, well I could just give you a sheet."

"I guess we don't really need battle code anymore." Stated Wilhelm. Getting an idea, Krauss turned to his bag of mystery and started to rummage through it.

" I believe we should try scoping the M1s. I think I have a spare scope." He pulled a small scope from his bag. Looking at it and the M1 he noticed something. The older guns had no rails.

"Shit this not going to work." He placed the scope rings down and looked at the M1.

" I think I could fabricate a mount with some time, but it will take a while. What do you say el-tee?" Adam looked at the six Garands sitting in there rack. "If you can get it done by the start of the week go ahead sergeant. I want us to be ready to deploy as soon as we can." Krauss gathered up an M1, an empty clip and a few scopes from his bag and rushed out of the room saying."I have done by tomorrow afternoon sir." Adam turned around and looked to the two machine gunners.

"Alright we're getting a bit more training in today. Both of you need to learn how to use rifles." The two saluted and scrambled for their secondary weapons, a BAR and a FG-42. And began the walk down to the ranges.

Below in Beacon's workshops Krauss was staring at a small pile of scopes and the M1. He just could not get the scope and mounting brackets to fit properly, if they did it would block the Mag well and prevent proper ejection. After close to three hours of nonstop building, he had a working prototype. It was basically a large block that had been cut in half and had the rough outline of a 4x optic milled into it. when sealed it wouldn't let the scope jiggle around. Well in theory that is. after a few test fires, the scope had moved out of alignment. and needed to be readjusted. That meant taking it out of its shell and refitting it, this would not work in combat. He picked up a pot of coffee he had "liberated" from the cafeteria and poured himself a cup. "This is going to take a while." He said. Turning to the pile of metal he flicked a random song on form his phone and got to work.

It was close to four in the morning when Krauss had finally looked at his watch again. The third prototype was half complete at this point. As Krauss ran the pieces through a test fit he discovered that a pin was way to small, and kept falling out.

He swore " Appena cazzo in forma!" If only he had extra rails he would have been done by now.

"What's that?" Said a voice from behind him. Startled Krauss pulled a borrowed C96 and pointed it at the source to find a surprised looking Ruby. He immediately holstered the pistol and let out a breath of air.

" Emperor above Rose! don't startle me like that. What are you doing down here anyways?"

Ruby held up the folded Scythe."Found a slight hang up in the blades unfolding process and I was going to fix it." She looked to the array of machinery and paper scarred across one of the workbench, the song that was playing was a strange style she hadn't heard before, lots of horns and something about Rome, whatever that was. (Triarii. Great band by the way.)

"How long have you been here? It's almost four AM."

"Since three last afternoon I think." He answered with a small yawn. Krauss reached for a cup lying on the bench and downed the contents. Looking back at the pieces of the mount scattered across the bench an idea came to his mind. grabbing a small block he tried to recreate the first mount with a sorta foam filling using a can of expanding insulation.

"OK that is the ugliest piece of shit I have ever made." Ruby looked at the mount and to the gun it was supposed to fit on.

"Uh it took you eight hours to come up with that?"

"Eh I never worked on a M1 before, they're close to seventy years old and really outdated. Besides i was never a gunsmith." Ruby was about to say she could help what when the radio Krauss had on his vest squawked to life.

" Krauss where the hell are you? I will court martial your ass if you're not in the barracks in ten minutes." Krauss panicked. and started to gather up his tools before realizing that he would never make it in time.

" Oh shit. Ruby!" the girl in question immediately stopped looking at the dismantled M1 and faced Krauss. "Watch this stuff make sure no one touches it." he said. Before Ruby could he ran out of the room heading to his unit's dorm.

Krauss got back to find a disturbing sight. the three other members of the fire team were standing around a bomb. a BIG bomb. "Sargent How the fuck did this get here!" Krauss approached the bomb and looked closer.

"Oh God that's a W59 Warhead!" the rest of the team looked at him for an explanation.

"this was a standard US nuclear warhead for long range missiles." The three looked in horror at the device sitting on the floor. Jonathan turned to face Krauss

"Krauss is that thing armed?" Krauss started to pace back and forth.

"I don't know I never took EOD training! Oh god we are going to get everyone killed!" Adam tried to reason with the panicking marksman.

"Well maybe it's just a small one. Only a few kilotons." Krauss laughed

" That thing is 1 megaton!"

"Krauss calm down, how far would we need to be to be in the clear?" Asked Adam.

"I don't really know… 16 klicks I think. Either way we are well and truly fucked if this goes off" Wilhelm asked the most important question yet.

"What are we going to do with this then? Bury it?" Krauss was about to reply when a knock silenced him and the rest of the occupants.

Everyone swore in various languages. "Quick hide it now" hissed Adam. Wilhelm and Jonathan moved to pick up the nuke but quickly discovered it was heavy, really heavy. Wilhelm whispered "American quick help us!" Adam and Krauss joined the group. The four shakily lifted the bomb and tried to place it in an open closet. Ozpin's Muffled voice came through the door.

"Mr McCarthy I would like to have a word with you." The four men really started to panic now. As they went to place the warhead on the ground it slipped and impacted with a loud thud and the sound of tearing wood. A brief look of utter terror crossed their faces before the floor fell out from underneath them. **(While 'lighter on Remnant, Remnant is made of smaller units then on Earth aka 1 Earth kilo is 1.25 Remnant kilos, while 1 Remnant kilo is .75 Earth kilo. These guys weigh in at eh 160-190 pounds, plus the 20 pound chest plates. So four 250 (R)pound paratroopers plus a 625 (R)pound bomb is probably more then any structural engineer on remnant was intending a closet's floor to hold. Hope you understand my reasoning.)**


	8. Fail Safe

**AN: Here's the new chapter it's a bit longer at 3k then most at 1.5k so enjoy it. I may not update next week because finals but I'll try. Um once again tell me what I screwed up so I can fix it.**

As the ceiling gave out team CFVY got a surprise in the form of four paratroops and a large bomb. It didn't help that two of them had been attempting to listen in on the conversation too. Yatsuhashi jumped in between the two groups in a futile attempts to shield his team. He had no idea why but that device just felt off, like his soul was being torn from him. The two Faunus of the team were utterly terrified of it, there animalistic instinct told then the cylinder was bad, really really bad. It stayed silent for a minute before A groan was heard.

"Are we dead?" Asked one of the soldiers.

"Alright let's get moving before." Adam stopped talking when he realized they were in an occupied room. Krauss stood up and Screeched in Italian

" _You know nothing_!" And dropped a flashbang followed by a smoke grenade courtesy of Wilhelm. In the cloud of smoke the four airborne grabbed the warhead and stumbled through the door and into the mass of students that had gathered in the hallway.

A few minutes ago

Ozpin was about to make his rounds and check on the "extra" team. He really needed to come up with a name for them. As he was turning the corner he spotted Krauss slip into their dorm. 'Odd, what are they doing up so late?.' He thought as he walked up to knock on their door he paused when he heard raised voices.

"16km I think? Either way we are well and truly fucked if this goes off." Ozpin suddenly felt ill.

"What are we going to do with this then? Bury it?" Ozpin composed himself and knocked twice. The other side was silent. Suddenly a bunch of footsteps were heard.

"Mr McCarthy I would like to have a word with you." A sudden lurch in the floor followed by the sound of wood breaking and a loud crash as what he presumed to be the paratroopers crash through the floor. Ozpin sighed as He ran down to the staircase and descended a level. He had made it about halfway before he heard a shrill yell in one of Krauss's other languages followed by a bright flash and an incredibly loud bang some more screams were heard as the hall slowly filled with students. After ten seconds the door burst open to reveal the four soldiers carrying a large cylinder wreathed in smoke.

"Mr McCarthy what on remnant are you doing!" Adam looked and saw the disturbingly calm visage of the head master.

" Uh waste disposal?"

Krauss walked over and whispered. " That's a nuke, I don't know if it's armed but we need to bury it deep. Now." Ozpin paled running through options he settled on both the least desirable and the safest option. Letting out a curse in old valean he decided to run with it as a fail safe.

"You four with me And bring that "Waste" with you. NOW." The paratroopers quickly followed dragging the nuke behind them. The crowd slowly dispersed after that.

After fifteen minutes the got to Ozpin's office. They dragged the bomb into the elevator, and Ozpin punched in the code for the vault. As the elevator descended. Ozpin's mask slipped and his fury was unleashed on the soldiers.

"HOW IN THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU HAVE A NUKE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! IF THAT HAD GONE OFF."

Krauss broke into his speech. " YOU THINK I'M NOT AWARE OF THAT! ADAM FOUND THAT SITTING ON THE FLOOR, WHAT WERE WE SUPPOSED TO DO!" The two men stared each other down for the rest of the ride. When the door pinged open Ozpin asked again

" Why do you have that."

Adam answered. " last night Krauss went down to the workshop to try upgrading one of our rifles. The rest of us went down to the rang to get some practice in at about 2330 we turned in for the night Krauss was still working down at the upgrades. At 0400 Wilhelm woke up to relieve himself and found that sitting in the middle of the room. I Recalled the sergeant and we found out what it is you know the rest." Ozpin turned to Krauss.

" Do you have any idea what its yield is?"

Krauss sighed." I think it's a W59 witch puts it at 1 megaton. How deep are we?"

Ozpin answered "About four kilometers why?"

"An airburst is deadly to about 16km but if it's buried down here it should only collapse the school at worst." The conversation moved on to if it went off what could they do to minimize casualties and if they should ever use it against the Grimm.

About midway through a hour of conversation Ozpin collapsed. A collective oh shit was muttered.

"I need to get away from that warhead." Said Ozpin

"Krauss, Wilhelm drag that thing as far away as you can." The two saluted Adam and began dragging right it towards Amber's casket. Ozpin's mind went into overdrive. What would happen if they saw her? if the bomb's casing wasn't intact and poisoned her? If it went off, what would happen? That warhead was just...wrong. Ozpin had never felt that leaching poisonous pull with ANY THING before. The radio that Adam held blared

"Adam there something down here. I have no idea what it is but it is sticking to the shadows."

An angry Adam turned to Ozpin. "Ozpin what else is down here?" Ozpin knew he was cornered here there was no chance of him wiggling out of this

"In the vault we are hiding a." A gunshot broke the Silence.

"CONTACT!" A voice screamed from down range. Several more reports followed.

Wilhelm's voice came through the radio "We've been engaged returning fire."

" Oberjäger what's your attacker?"

"Don't know but it's definitely not the Grimm. Krauss took a round From it he's fine though." Ozpin pushed himself up and began to quickly walk towards the gunfire.

"Ozpin what are you doing you don't have a weapon!" Ozpin merely flipped his cane around. And continued Adam muttered a creative curse under his breath and ran to catch up with the aging headmaster. They heard the reports of a C96 and Krauss's M45. When they finally saw the rest of the fire team the three men paused. Jonathan said what was on everyone's mind

"What in the hell?"

"Why do you think Ozpin got sick like that?" Asked Wilhelm.

"Well from what I remember Ozpin saying from when we first met was that remnant doesn't really have any radioactive isotopes. So maybe the radiation effects them quicker or something." The two stopped to adjust there holds when the distinctive boom of a shotgun announced itself. Krauss flew back his side smoking.

"CONTACT!" Yelled Wilhelm.

He grabbed the dead man's hold on the back of Krauss's armor and dragged. Krauss was coherent enough to try covering them with his M45. He saw a shape moving in the shadows. He snapped up the 45 and fired. The bullet screeched down range and impacted a silver field.

"We've been engaged! Returning fire." The sharp reports of Wilhelm's 96 mixed with the duller pops of Krauss's 45. The shotgun boomed again narrowly missing Wilhelm. The near miss caused him to lose his footing. As he fell back a sword flew past his face in a glittering arc.

" You boys shouldn't be down here." Said a slurred voice from the shadows. Wilhelm was screaming into the radio for backup. Krauss saw the massive blade bearing down on him. He fired twice and the slide locked back. The glittering silver aura just barely seemed to stop the 45s

"Qrow! Stand down!"

The sword paused mid strike.

"Ozpin? They snuck into the vault they could be spies for Her as far as we know!" Ozpin angrily replied "Do they look like anyone from Remnant. They're all 7 feet tall for Oum's sake. There even dressed in a uniform with rankings on it! Do you really think She would send out her agents like that!"

"Ozpin who even are these people and what is that thing? It's like pure evil in a can." Asked Qrow. Krauss answered with no small amount of pain in his voice.

"That is a W59 fusion warhead for a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile with a yield of about one megaton of conventional explosives." Qrow didn't really know how to respond to that so a

"What?" Sufficed.

"It's has the same force as 2204622621 pounds of TNT." Ok the wheels in Qrow's head were turning but had no traction.

" You shoot bomb you blow up Beacon and EVERYONE dies a horrible death. Now if someone could give me a bandage before I bleed out." Finished a very much bleeding Krauss.

"Johnathon you have the medic kit right?" Asked Wilhelm. Jonathan nods and went to attend to Krauss. He pulled the connecting tabs apart and slide the 50 pound vest off of Krauss. Krauss said in a measured voice

"No painkillers." Jonathan nodded and reached into the Field kit.

"This will probably hurt a lot." said Jonathan as he bandaged the wound. Krauss started swearing in a strange mix of pseudo latin and Russian.

"Who even are you people? asked Qrow again. "Paratroopers. The the youngest over there is Wilhelm with the 8th Fallschamjägers. Krauss is from the 101st Airborne like Johnny boy and I but he's eh what seventy was it?"

"Seventyfive but close enough."

"Seventy five years in the future on what is probably the start of world war three the rest of us are are from the last years of World War Two." Explained Adam.

"Your soldiers then. Damn what kind of army goes about not giving armor and aura to their men."

"where we come from nobody has aura. A single bullet is all it takes." Qrow decided to take a drink. "Sounds like fun."

Krauss muttered."you have no idea."

Ozpin looked at all of them and said. "I only keep one thing in this vault. in an attempt to hide her from the world so she could recover." He motioned for the group to continue." I assume you all know what a fairytale is." The men nodded. "There are truths behind any fairytale. This one is unfortunately completely true, the story of the four maidens. Four women blessed with true magical powers."

Krauss muttered "Pysker stupri." Under his breath.

" The four maidens were known as summer, spring, winter, and autumn. And they used these powers to help and heal the world. Eventually they were forced into hiding by power hungry lunatics. Until recently they have remained safe."

"You just said recently. Why do I have a feeling like I'm getting sent to the eastern front?" Asked Wilhelm.

"Just two months ago the fall maiden was attacked and something unprecedented happened. Part of her powers were stolen. Normally the powers transfer to the last person they held in their thoughts at death. If the person is male the powers are randomly given to some other young girl." Wilhelm asked.

"So You're keeping the Fall maiden down here then?"

" yes until we can find someone willing to take on that duty that is."

"You mean someone from the school."

Ozpin grimaced. "Most likely yes." Wilhelm's face was deep in thought.

"What if we just killed them?" No one expected that.

"Wilhelm that's crazy." Said Krauss. Trying to explain the idiocy of the statement.

"No listen, we gather all four in a far off place, under a mountain, or in the ocean and detonate that nuke, it should probably kill their souls, and by extension their powers should be." Adam added his two cents

" um Wilhelm I think you let your inner SS slip out there." A slightly angry Wilhelm retorted.

" It would rid remnant of this problem once and for all!" Krauss said

"You can't sentence four girls to death like that! This is literally what was He doing with the Jews. You should know better then us any Final Solutions do not work." Jonathan suggested.

"What if we tie the detonator to fall heart rate when she dies she will take her attacker with her. "

Qrow did not like the idea." And if she flatlines at random? I'm willing to take risks but this is way too much."

Krauss said" Then we give someone here the detonator and the codes."

Ozpin said "Give me the code. I will insure it can not be used improperly ."

"Then I will take the clacker." Said Adam. "As a weapon of the United States that warhead technically belongs to us, and the ranking officer of the US I will hold the weight of its detonation."

Krauss attempted to persuade him otherwise." What! No, that thing doesn't have the strength to breach through two kilometers of rock and steel."

"I Am well aware of that fact Sargeant, if that thing goes off, I will be the one to do it and I will gladly die doing it." The six stood there in front of the two most powerful weapons on the planet. Adam broke the silence.

"Krauss, where is the rifle you were upgrading?"

"Um I may have left the Granad in the armory."

Adam was not pleased."Sargent you left a rifle and ammunition, in the open, in a school for teenagers!" Krauss was starting to feel the heat.

"Well I told Ruby to watch over it."

This did not help him"William. You are aware of Ms. Rose's love of weapons are you not." Said Ozpin.

"eh no… I'll be right back!" With that he broke off to not a sprint to the elevator. The sounds of his jingling gear faded into the distance.

"Ozpin what does my niece have to do with this?" Said Qrow his voice dangerously low.

"Qrow nothing bad has happened. Sergeant Krauss was found bleeding out among his dead comrades by team RWBY a week ago. From the sound of it the Sergeant was upgrading one of team. I don't actually have a name for your team yet Adam."

Adam shrugged. "Call us Fireteam Airborne, it's our job after all." Ozpin nodded.

" Like I was saying, he was attempting to upgrade a rifle when Adam recalled him, he Must have seen her on his way back." Qrow was still unsatisfied but gave in. Adam suggested that they all return topside, and so they all slowly shuffled to the elevator.

Krauss was panicking in the elevator praying that Ruby hadn't done anything stupid. The doors opened with a ding. Krauss raced down the hall towards the armory. What he had failed to realize was that he reopened the shotgun wound. He arrived to see Ruby still standing guard, The pieces of the Granad neatly laid on the side of the bench she was tuning Crescent Rose on.

A out of breath Krauss asked." No one touched the rifle right!" Ruby was unfortunately too invested in her weapon to notice him enter and jumped at the sudden noise, and let out a small scream.

"Kyyyaaa!"

And fell to the floor. She looked up to see an out of breath and bleeding Krauss leaning on the doorframe. "Krauss what are. Oh Oum you're bleeding!" Krauss's face scrunched up in puzzlement and looked to his side, it was indeed bleeding again as Ruby had pointed out, and started to hurt again.

"Damnit Jonathan just bandaged that. Never mind it I'll be fine."

He said waving off a concerned look from the little reaper. Krauss moved to pack up the rifle when an idea hit him. Somewhat literally in this case. He had fumbled one of the upper barrel cover pieces and gotten smacked in the head with it. Krauss looked at the wood and the scope.

"Why did I not see that earlier." Ruby was naturally confused at what he was talking about. "Hun?" Krauss scrambled through a small pile of tools looking for the scope rings. After finding those pieces he picked up a set of files. And began filling a pair of grooves that would accept the rings. In 15 minutes he had finished the mounting." I feel really stupid it took me 12 hours to figure this out."

Ruby said "You could have asked me if you needed help. I made Crescent Rose myself."

Krauss looked up from the half assembled rifle.

"Thanks I'll remember that for next time."

Krauss went back to rebuilding the M1 and was nearly finished when Ruby asked "What was your team leader so upset about?"

Krauss clicked the final piece on and thought carefully about his answer. "Ruby you're well aware I'm not from around here. This morning something from my home appeared, something that would if misused, would bring unparalleled destruction to Remnant. it would be like a second sun chose to land on you planet. So Ozpin and our team hid it deep. instead of most of Vale being destroyed, only Beacon will suffer damage. I want you to understand if I or anyone from Airborne tells you to run, you grab your team and run like a cat out of hell. You may survive then."

Ruby was somewhat frightened at what Krauss was saying. "You're not making any sense Krauss."

"I can't say more, it's above both our pay grades." And with that he left.


	9. Knowlage works both ways

**Hey guys... Sorry for skipping the update last week finals were a bitch. Due to my...Procrastination... I have to go through summer school. Band camp is starting soon so I have 14+ hour days ahead of me I've gotten stuck on the next and final rewritten chapter. A nice couple fights are going in that one. Along with a brief demonstration of the difference in worlds and the Batman levels of preparation Airborne has in case of** ** _unfortunate_** **events. So read it hate it love it whatever. Just try to tell what I fucked up see ya next week.**

Later that morning when teams JNPR and RWBY were eating breakfast Yang asked "So any of you hear that noise last night?" Both teams groaned. Weiss was the first as usual to complain.

"Why did you have to remind me of that. What even was that, it sounded like grenade."

Blake backed her up."I swear I heard the floor give out, but after, their was probably a flashbang." The conversation continued pointing out various details of the night including Ruby's talk with Krauss. The group fell silent when they were suddenly eclipsed in shadows. they turned to see the men of Airborne walking past, Still in their respective uniforms, including a striped down version of Krauss's Armor and their sidearms. "I'm telling you .45 ACP is way better then 9mil Parabellum." said Krauss tapping his holster.

A bored looking Wilhelm's rebuttal followed. "Yes but you only have 7 shots and much harsher recoil." Krauss's rebuttal wasn't heard as they had already passed the group.

"Why are they still in their combat uniforms?" Asked Blake "Wouldn't the staff have given them uniforms?" To the surprise of all, Jaune gave an answer.

"Krauss is probably just following his military protocol, he never quit right. the same goes for all of them. "

Weiss was believably skeptical "And how would you know that Arc?" She said accusingly.

"My family have always been soldiers, I'm one of the first to attempt at being a hunter For generations." The soon conversation then turned to the various upbringings the teens had.

After breakfast in Airborne's quarters.

"Alright so I know we're all out of high school so think of this as college, and not a really fucked up high school where 15 year olds get scythes twice the size of themselves."

"Sir, still why are we doing this." Asked an annoyed Jonathan.

"Private, none of us really have any idea what this world is like, Intel is the most important weapon." Answered Krauss "Besides Ozpin appointed uh." He opened a pouch on his plate carrier and pulled a notebook out. He flipped thru till he found the entry he was looking."Team RWBY. To guide us around through classes and other stuff."

Adam Noded. "Well Classes start in thirty minutes, best to contact them now, you guys got everything? He said tapping the vest part of the COMA armor Krauss had given each of them. If something went wrong they wanted to be prepared. They all replied affirmatives. "It's settled then, I'll make the call." Adam fumbled through his scroll. Being from the 1940s did not give him much in the IT department. Eventually he managed to send the message. "OK grab your things, our lesion should be here soon." He was Interrupted by a knock on the door."Speak of the devil. Sargeant the door." Krauss opened it and saw Ruby standing there. "Bonjour."

"Hi Krauss!" She cheerily replied. She noticed M240B that was spread across the table, as Krauss had failed to finish cleaning it earlier. In as flash of rose petals she was inspecting the gun."Wow you actually carry that around! It looks super heavy. What's it's chambered in? Does it transform into a ax."

Krauss sighed. " it's only 27pounds, 7.62 NATO and no."

"Krauss when we get back that 240 is back in its rack." Said Adam he then turned to Ruby "Lead the way miss." "So first we have Grimm studies, then chemistry, history, lunch, world lit, math, and finally combat basics." She said as she walked out the door.

They met up with the rest of RWBY at the door to Port's Grimm Studies class. Weiss did not take Ruby wondering off well."You dolt, where were you! Classes start in five minutes."

"I was helping Team Airborne!" She retorted. WBY suddenly noticed the four men.

"Ms Schnee can we just drop this and go to class now, we're all here to learn." Said Krauss as he walked through the door. Port was sitting as his desk looking through what seemed to be notes for his upcoming lecture. "Professor, 2nd Lieutenant Adams," He stuck out his hand." I believe Ozpin informed you of us." Port stood up and shook Adam's hand.

"Fireteam Airborne I heard of your circumstances." He paused in thought for a second. "Sit up there, come by my office we'll have to trade some of our war stories sometime." He gestured to a spot near the back right. Airborne found their seats and waited for the class to start. What they had been expecting was just about the complete opposite of what happened. Then again the pillows some students brought in should have tipped one of them off.

Krauss could not believe it. His speech kinda started with something useful about Nevermores but what followed was just complete horse shit. Krauss had seen one take an HE round, you can't kill one with an ax. That and the fact that he was doing all this with an ax wasn't helpful either, Only Krauss had an actual Melee weapon, and he never really used it in combat. "Professor?" Port stopped and turned to Krauss

"Is there something you would like to know Sergeant?" Krauss mentally cheered.

" I noticed you focused more on closing to Melee ranges with the Nevermore, what would you recommend for engaging one at range, some teams aren't as skilled at close range fighting." To the shock of Weiss who was the soul student awake, Port nodded, and walked over a poster that had a Nevermore's bone structure displayed."I would recommend aiming for the eyes. Then I would try to place shots near the joints of the wings and leg area. though your rifles seem to have a bit more of a punch, so a neck shot would probably be effective too." He said as he pointed out each spot on the poster. "Grazie"

"No problem Sergeant." He continued with his story, his ax suddenly replaced with a toothpick. Krauss soon gave up on trying. The rest of the "lecture" pasted in a slow form until the end when Port reviled his random catch of the day. an Ursa.

"Would anyone like to demonstrate the take down on an Ursa?" No one raised their hands. "Fireteam Airborne perhaps?" The entire class then noticed the four soldiers sitting in the back.

Adam asked "Oberjäger up for a bit of sport?" Wilhelm checked his pistol.

"I'll give it a shot. Krauss mind if I borrow your bayonet?" Krauss shrugged and tossed the blade to him.

Wilhelm walked to the front of the room and drew his pistol. Placed his arms in a tee, and nodded to Port. With a swing of the dreaded blunder ax the door was cleaved open and the Ursa inside charged. Wilhelm quickly fired two rounds at its head. The first bullet missed but the second connected and fractured the bone plating. The Ursa took a chest level swipe at Wilhelm. Throwing himself at the ground Wilhelm barely avoided being eviscerated. Quickly he stabbed the returning arm. It dug deep and was nearly pulled out of his hand when the beast spasmed in pain. Bringing the Mauser to bear he settled his sights on the relatively unarmored throat and chin. Wilhelm attempted to empty the mag but only got six of his remaining rounds out before the Ursa collapsed. As the beast slowly evaporated, it revealed a slightly out of breath Wilhelm. "Mein Gott, I have never smelled something so foul." He said he got up and put the last two rounds in the remaining bits of Ursa.

"Mr. Studet. Please refrain from excessive force." Said Port as he inspected the splintery holes the rounds left in the floor

." Sorry bout that sir, magazine needs to be empty before a reload." He pulled out a stripper clip, nested it in the notch, pushed the 10 7.86 bullets down, and pulled the strip out letting the bolt slam forward. The finality of the action was emphasized by the bell ringing.

"Class dismissed, remember to turn in your Deathstalker reports by Friday." The students rushed out, Happy they had gotten away from the rambling professor.

" OK Airborne, follow us" shouted Ruby as she dashed off. Chemistry went by in a flash. The men of Airborne struggled to remember whatever high school chemistry they could while learning what the hell a Mole is.(I fucking hate the little buggers, WAY too many numbers.) Now history was something very new to them. Krauss was somewhat excited, even the reluctant Jonathan was interested. As they walked in, they were instantly stopped at the door when Dr. Oobleck practically teleported in front of Wilhelm.

"Ah the new students! Or would you prefer soldiers? You will have to tell me about your home, Earth was it?" The group tried to process the new information. Krauss was the first to respond.

"Uh, well see about stopping by later then."

"Excellent now take your seats, CLASS SHALL BEGIN MOMENTARILY!" He promptly zipped around to his desk the men looked at each other and found seats behind there guides. The bell rang and Oobleck immediately launched into the tale of the Faunus rights war. The four Soldiers all couldn't help but relate the topic to home. The various genocides and wars their respective homelands had gone through had shaped Earth to the violent hell hole it was today. As he glossed over the battle of Fort Castle.(Department of Departmental affairs anyone?) he asked a question.

"Now why was the general defeated so easily?" Jonathan raised his hand. "Yes Mr Browning."

"Basic Tactics state you do not attack at night. The Defenders know there home much better than a foreign army will. Plus as the sergeant will confirm Guerrilla Warfare is extremely effective against an invading army."

Oobleck turned to Krauss.

"Can you elaborate Stg? I don't think the rest of the class is as well versed in large scale military tactics."

"Guerrilla Warfare is a type of irregular warfare were a small group of armed civilians, insurgents, or paramilitary personnel engage in continued raids, ambushes, bombing, and hit and run attacks to fight a larger less mobile force. This is currently what most terrorist organizations are using to hold territory where I was stationed in the Middle East."

A student asked "Like the White Fang?"

Krauss frowned"As I am new here, I don't really know all the details regarding the White Fang, but yes most of their actions follow Guerrilla tactics. This does not however classify them as a terrorist organization."

To the annoyance of many Cardin decided to voice his opinion. "How does not make those animals terrorists."

"One, don't be a dick to the Faunus. Two, These tactics are often used by freedom fighters in order to gain independence from an oppressive government. The U.S.'s war for independence for example. Three the White Fang have yet to exhibit any terrorist activities. Almost all of these activities are marks of organized crime not terrorism." Weiss immediately tried to counter Krauss's argument

"So stealing thousands of Lien worth of Dust, kidnapping various Schee company employees is just fine!"

"No. But it is not an act of terrorism. An act of terrorism would like in 2001 when an Islamist extremist group hijacked four passenger planes and crashed them into the world trade centers in New York, and the Pentagon, the US military Headquarters, in the capital. The fourth plane was brought down in a field by the passengers. It was believed to have been aimed at the congress building, one of the three major government headquarters. About 3000 died that day, and it sparked the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran."

The class looked at Krauss in shock.

Velvet timidly asked. "Why would anyone do such a thing?"

"I don't really know miss. Some say revenge, some religious fervor, even just for pursuit of power." Krauss sighed. "Enough about my home, we are here to learn about yours."

The class continued, Oobleck zipping around, students attempting to keep up and so on till the bell rang.


	10. Fight or Flight

AN: **hey guys I'm back with your weekly dose of idiocy. We have a bit of backstory on Krauss and not one not three but TWO fights... Well if you feel inclined to count the secound that is. Uh that's all for now, please read it and give me feedback, I have no beta so I'm generally pulling this out of my ass at the best of times.**

Lunch was spent with Krauss and Wilhelm argueing over pistol calibers with Ruby adding in every now and then, JPR trying to control Nora, WB just eating like normal, Yang then asked a question that a certain sergeant hoped he would never have to answer. "Krauss?" The man turned to face Yang.

"Yes miss." Replied Krauss.

"How did you get those scars?" The gathered teens and members of his squad looked at him expecting an answer.

"It's not something I like to talk about, but I know you won't stop till you get an answer. You gals remember when we first spoke right." He received nods from RWBY. "That IED did a lot more damage than that." Jaune went to raise his hand before he could even get it halfway raised Krauss predicted and answered the question."Improvised Explosive Device, a homemade bomb." The hand slowly descended."Well at the time I was a specialist, just below my current rank, we were on patrol in a village. The place had been cleared of insurgents last week and deemed safe. I was at the rear and noticed a kid, no older then Ruby, was getting really close to the point man." The group increased their attention at his story. His clothes were really baggy and he always kept his hand behind his back hiding it from our point man and most of the squad." It was here Krauss's voice took on a sad and Slightly angry tone. "After a second I realized he had a detonator in his hand I…" Krauss's voice broke slightly." I tried to take him down but I missed the kill shot. The bastard still managed to detonate his vest and took most of my squad with him." The members of Airborne just nodded. They had all seen some of the more fanatical Nazis and Russians try similar tactics, but to think it was someone as young as 15… They didn't like it one bit.

"What do you mean detonate his vest?" Asked an oblivious Ruby. Adam filled her in. "Suicide bomber, he filled a tac vest, like what we're wearing, with explosives walks up to a target and kills himself usually taking a few dozen with him, I saw it with some SS platoon while back. Never thought I'd hear of someone so young doing it. " The Remnants ( _you come up with a better name for them._ ) were utterly appalled that someone could do such a thing. Krauss continued his story." the bomb was filled with easily a couple hundred AKM rounds, some shards of a rifle hit my face" he said as he pointed the one scar that ran from the corner of his mouth back. He then rolled up his sleeve past his elbow and showed the scarring visible at the joint and around it." any thing near my joints got hit pretty badly. he rolled the sleeve back down. " and of course that rebar hit me here and pinned me to a wall." he tapped his right side just below his lungs. Yang apologized "I'm sorry I didn't know." Krauss shook his head. "No need, that was an error on many levels mine included. The meal continued in relative silence. Next up was combat class, something everyone was highly interested in.

Combat class was quite different. Airborne split off to grab their gear and suit up. they got quite a few curious looks. The COMA armor was quite different than anything seen by the people of Remnant. Wilhelm had taken his MG-42 and had a FG42 on standby. He had also taken Krauss's previous Machine Gunner's helmet and had elected to keep the faceplate down. He also, along with Jonathan, had large box magazines strapped everywhere, ensuring they had the proper amount of ammo. Adam had taken his Thomson along with the new scoped Garand. Krauss had taken his M14 and saber. He was also lugging the field radio with him. Each had their sidearms. They all sat next to RWBY and JNPR. The other students were rightfully nervous of this new group and the massive guns they had with them. Yang had to hold Ruby back from 'inspecting' the various small arms. Goodwitch went through her opening speal, don't use excessive force, remember to look proper for the incoming guests during the Vytal tournament, don't forget to maintain your equipment, ect. Ozpin had unlocked the team's collective aura earlier in the week. Unfortunately due to the higher levels of background radiation on the team, their aura was maybe strong enough to prevent bug bites and paper cuts.( _Don't want them falling ill to Remnant's version of Lyme disease or similar._ ) They were fine with it, they had fought without magic shields before, they could still do it now. Glynda spun the match wheel. With a click the opponents popped on the screen." Blake Belladonna vs Nora Valkyrie." Announced Goodwitch.

Nora stared down her opposition, her hammer was held loosely, and her feet spread causally. Blake was the complete opposite. She was coiled like a spring, ready to pounce. Gamble Shroud was held at a low ready off to the side. Nora launched the opening attack, a grenade flew crazily out of the hammer head. Blake predictably dodged to attack and went for a swing with Gamble's sheath. As the blade was blocked by the end of Magnhild's handle, the pistol was quickly swung around on its cord to strike Nora's back. With a quick tap of the hammer Nora altered the trajectory to it so it would simply fall short. As the pistol returned to Blake, Nora made a series of wild swings that ended with a grenade aimed up and behind Blake. Blake let a shadow clone take the first few hits and then tried to counter by blocking with Gamble's sheath and sliding inside Nora's Guard. Nora did what any person with a long weapon would do, back up. She quickly snapped the end of the half up towards Blake's gut. The blow connected and slightly staggered Blake. Then the grenade came down. Nora's frankly brilliant plan failed when Blake simply let a clone tank the blast for her. Blake's clone was not able to take full force and the blast clipped her, and it pushed her right into a two handed swing of the hammer. Blake flew a good fifteen feet from it. She recovered and put three rounds down range. Two hit and chipped away at Nora's Aura. Blake then lashed out with her sword landing several solid hits. Those strikes brought Nora's aura down to the orange, matching her own.

Blake tried to play dirty. "Nora Look! Pancakes!" She said pointing behind the bomber. Nora seemed to fall for it. Blake rushed her with her out sword to her side. The strike was a low slash at the legs. A crying Nora, not finding any pancakes, spun around and brought down Magnhild on Blake's back and less than a half second. Blake's aura crashed into the red as she was smashed ruthlessly into the ground. "There were no pancakes!" Said a sobbing Nora. Blake simply groaned in the crater she had made.

Soon Blake was collected from the floor and dragged to a seat. Nora on the other hand was being feed pancakes by Ren, it was the only thing that seemed to sedate her cries of "The Invisible Pancakes". Goodwitch spun the wheel a second time, as it revealed the opponents she announced their names. "Cardin Winchester vs 2nd Lieutenant McCarthy."the students started to whisper among themselves. Who was the Lt. , one of those new guys seen with RWBY?

The two stepped into the arena. Cardin rested his mace on his shoulder. Cardin attempted to taunt the older man.

"Ha just coincide and I let you off with only a few broken ribs"

Adam simply chambered a round in the Thomson. Cardin immediately tried to rush Adam. His mace raised high. Unfortunately Adam already had a Bead on him. The SMG burped a three round burst. Cardin was too close to dodge and all three impacted his chest. The first impacted and brought his aura down to around 60%. The second brought down to 20, well into the red. The third bullet hit and shattered his aura. The bullet continued and punched through the ornate chest armor and stopped after hitting his sternum. Cardin collapsed almost immediately after. His mace fell and rolled to a stop after impacting Adam's boot. What people didn't notice was that Adams aura had completely depleted from the slight tap. Everyone was shocked. Had Cardin of all people just gotten killed? What the hell did the new guy load in that gun of his. Crescent Rose, widely accepted as the most powerful gun in the school, would take upwards of twenty shots to deplete someone's aura.

Before even Goodwitch could do anything Jonathan ,the closest the Fireteam had to a medic, quickly lept into the arena and ran over to Cardin's command chain immediately switched to him. He quickly barked out orders to the team.

"Krauss get a medic, Adam help me get this chest plate off."

Krauss quickly passed the task off to Ruby, as she knew where the infirmary was and was the fastest. Adam quickly slung his Thomson and ran to help Jonathan. They quickly removed the armor and under shirt to expose the wound. Jonathan sighed in relief, the bullet had barely broken skin and had stopped a little more than an inch in the flesh. Presumably at the sternum. He quickly removed the bullet, and bandaged the wound tightly. After mulling it over in his head he stuck a dose of morphine in Cardin's arm. The kid would be out for a few hours but he would be fine, and hopefully more cautious in the future.

Goodwitch was not very happy. She had her doubts about the four soldiers, this just seemed to put the final nail in the coffin. Fortunately before Goodwitch could start yelling Ruby showed up dragging one of the school's doctors behind her. Jonathan quickly informed the man and let the professional take over. The doctor looked over Jonathan's work.

"Nice job kid, can't really do any more. What happened anyway?"

Jonathan shrugged. "Took three .45 rounds to the chest. Aura stopped two, last one pierced aura and armor. I thought aura was a bit tougher than this."

This threw the doctor off track "wait three pistol rounds did this?"

"Yep."

The doctor looked to the unconscious hunter and shook his head.

"Alright well you're probably not going to be sparing for a while so help me carry him to the infirmary."

The two airborne saluted, picked the boy up, and carried him away. While the class, and by extension Goodwitch, was busy trying calm down, Krauss and Wilhelm slipped out and caught up with their team. A hushed conversation followed.

They had quickly run back to the barracks and started to grab Ammunition, food, survival gear, and a few other important odds and ends.

"Krauss check the weather." Krauss flipped on his scroll and quickly looked it up.

"We got lots of light rain and a bit of thunder starting at 2130 and continuing for the next two days."

Adam nodded."You heard the man. Make sure your shit is waterproof."

"El-Tee."

"Yes Private?"

"Permission to bring the 67."

"Denied. If we run into anything that big we're screwed anyways. Take the 1919."

He turned to the other two. "Alright Karuss you're taking that Garand you finished. (M14 is a direct 'upgrade' and uses almost all the same controls. A transfer would take a minute to learn.) Everyone takes .45s and .30. Wilhelm do you want to carry the 42? you will be hauling your own ammo." Wilhelm looked at the heavy gun. "You mind if I take my rifle instead?" Adam shook his head

"Go ahead, it's probably the only other weapon you trained on." The gunner nodded and started loading magazines and placing them in his webbing. After all the gear was squared away on their persons, Adam instructed Krauss to leave a recording and write a note. The tape would be placed in the room for the staff detailing what they had done and how long they would be indisposed for. The note would be a forgery to let them commandeer a bullhead to take them to the Emerald Forest.

The arming process only took fifteen minutes but it was too slow in the fire team's opinion. They quickly made it to the air pad, got a pilot, and were in the air in five minutes. Wilhelm was drawing a route on a map with Adam. Krauss was instructing the pilot on the LZ and the two extraction sites. Jonathan was acting as a door gunner while listening to the chatter the rest were making. The soldiers soon landed and began grabbing gear and disembarking. Once assured the had gotten everything Krauss singled the pilot to take off.

"Alright, first camp is ten miles at bearing 150, I want us there before the rain starts. It won't be long before Ozpin figures out what happened and sends someone after us." The men gave various affirmatives and started walking. They made to mile 7 when Wilhelm, who was on point, called a halt.

Adam asked "What's the hold up?"

"Uh Ursa, six of them, they are moving to the west, they haven't noticed us."

"Wait for them to pass then press on." He turned to his third "leave a marker, Runic"

Krauss pulled his Kbar and carved the corresponding runes for 7/10 and B150 in a tree on both sides of the clearing. The group then continued the trek to camp.

 **AN: well hope you enjoyed it, I'll see you guys on the 29th. Hopefully.**


	11. Midnight Patrol

**AN: Sorry for getting this up so late, I have a lot on my plate right now. So I made this a bit longer at just under 3K words. This officially marks the end of the pre written chapters. I have maybe one left if a work my ass off to get it finished for next week. So I've decided to take things a bit different here as exactly where in the time line this is happening is stil up for debate. Anyways hope you enjoy, it took way to much time to write this crap. If I fuck up let me know so I can attempt at fixing it. And if for some reason your enjoying the shit show that is WttW follow this story.**

 **G658244 out.**

Beacon.

Team RWBY and JNPR ,along with most of the staff, had been running through pretty much the entirety of Beacon for the past hour and a half in an attempt to find the missing Fireteam. Eventually they had regrouped at the door for the fireteam's barracks

"There's no sign of them anywhere." Said a tired Ruby.

Ren asked "Did any of us check their room?" The group looked to Ruby. She started to poke her fingers together.

"Of course we did. But let's uh double check right?" Weiss face palmed. Ruby nervously knocked on the door and was surprised when it slowly swung open. The gathered teams peered eagerly inside to find. Nothing.

The noticed the hasty patched hole near the closet. Everyone marveled at the amount of guns placed around the room. Yang and Nora unsurprisingly seemed fascinated by the M67. Jaune was inspecting what seemed to be a shelf filled with knives. Ruby was looking at the still disassembled M240B . Weiss was attempting to read the inscription on the sheath of Krauss's sword. But it was in runic, so for once she had absolutely no clue what it meant. Pyhrra was staring at the 55 gallon drum in the corner, wondering what it's use was. Blake moved to the table after passing the massive support weapon, she saw the stack of scrolls that probably belonged to Airborne. She picked up one with a piece of tape that read 'Staff, Play Me.' "What's this?" She clicked the play button, soon Krauss voice rose above a lot of background noise.

"Hey Ozpin since we almost killed a kid we're going to lay low for a bit." A loud clang was heard followed by something unintelligible. " John leave the Thomson. Uh anyways if you need us we'll be on patrol in the forest, follow the markers."

Adam's voice cut in" one of your pilots will know the LZ and EZs. Make sure none of the kids come after us please, we don't know if we can keep them safe." The tape ended.

"I Guess we found them then." Said Jaune

"What are we going to tell Ozpin?" Asked Ren

"That Airborne just committed suicide?" Replied Yang

"Come on guys we can still find them, they said the left markers and everything."

"Ruby did you not just hear them they said not to go after them."

"Well what are we supposed to do, let them die!"

Weiss huffed angrily "You know full well I didn't mean it that way."

Jaune broke up the argument before it could begin. "Guys look at this." He held up a single bullet from Krauss's rifle. Ruby zipped over and picked up a round herself."This is wrong."

Yang inspected the round and found nothing wrong. "What do you mean sis?"

"The casing is marked 7.62x51 mm. the bullet is closer to 9.5 by." She gently pried the bullet out of the brass spilling a bit of the propellant." 63mm though" (She a gun nut, she should be able to recognize a bullet's dimensions.)

"Is that why Cardin's aura failed?"

Ren shook his head."while it's a significant increase in terms of bullets, it still wouldn't be enough to do that."

"While this is interesting we need to help Airborne" said Ruby

Weiss looked at the small bit of powder that had come out of the casing Ruby opened. "That doesn't look like any dust I'm aware of." She turned to address Ruby but found a half dozen rose petals slowly floating to the ground in stead. "Come on let's find her before she gets in trouble." The teens dashed to the hanger

Emerald Forest. Bravo Site.

After finding that the original site was recently flooded, they moved three miles to the east to Bravo site. It was much better, the men had hoisted themselves into a tree that was a good twenty feet higher than the surrounding vegetation. Currently Krauss was switching places with Wilhelm at the top. The two were instructed to act as look outs. Lower down and only just breaching the canopy surrounding them, was Adam, who was cooking a stew in his and Jonathan's helmets. (There're nicknamed steel pots, I bet somewhere someone took the name a bit literally.) Jonathan sat in the lowest branches as a lookout for any ground movement. As the sun started to set, Adam passed out the stew. It was thick, but hearty and quite tasty. They quietly admired to setting sun. Suddenly Krauss stood up and grabbed his binoculars.

"I told them not to follow."

"What?" Asked Adam he passed the spoon off to Wilhelm and scrambled to Krauss's perch.

"Bullhead. Bearing uh 335 and closing." He pointed and he handed to binocs over to the Lt.

"Krauss, Please tell me that isn't students." Krauss was looking for the field radio he had been carrying.

" I'll find out. What's our call sign?"

"Your Airborne 1-3 we talked about this."

"Airborne 1-3 to approaching bullhead you are entering a restricted airspace. Turn back now."

"William you do not have power to declare a restricted area on my property." They blanched that was ozpin's voice! they were well and truly up shit Creek without a paddle now.

"You're not coming after us for anything unpleasant right?"

"No. Though I would like to know where you are." A silent conversation passed between the two men.

"We'll light a flare." Adam cracked open the flare gun he held and checked the load. Seeing the correct load he pointed it straight up and pulled the trigger. The harsh pale light of the flare illuminated the surrounding area quite well and the bullhead soon changed course. Krauss pulled a flashlight out and slowly waved it to continue to guide them in. The bullhead quickly zeroed in on their tree and pulled alongside it. Ozpin hopped off and walked down a branch to the center were Wilhelm was sitting. "Mr. Studet, could you please." The rest of his sentence was cut off as Adam landed on the above branch with a thud.

"Ozpin, is there a problem? I believe we left a message. was it unclear?" Adam's grin was quite noticeable in the falling gloom.

Ozpin resisted the urge to facepalm "Lieutenant, please refrain from running out on patrol, what happened was an accident from lack of information on both ends. Though I'm here on a different matter. Teams RWBY and JNPR are missing." The two soldiers looked at each other then up. A "Sergeant!" Was voiced.

The reply was a slightly sarcastic "What? Did Jonathan get stuck again?"

Lower down the tree a faint "Fuck you." Was heard

"Shitcan it private. Krauss what did you leave on the tape? "

A moment of silence passed. "Sorry we almost killed that kid, we're going to lay low for a few days. If you need us we'll be on patrol follow the marketers, Uh don't let the kids follow us."

Ozpin sighed "William you know that was basically challenging them to follow you."

Wilhelm was puzzled. "Why would that be a challenge? The couldn't even had heard the message it was on the table and the door was… Unlocked."

The two airborne realized that the teens would have no idea what the markers would say. Runic was a completely unknown alphabet and even if the pilot had heard about their first camp, they had moved to bravo site.

Adam was a step ahead "Wilhelm, Jonathan" the two looked to him." Move back to the old site look for any sign of the kids." He looked up to Krauss's perch. "Krauss search along our previous path and beyond in case they overshot." The two gunners scrambled down into the green below and set out a fast jog, their flashlights fading into the dark.

Krauss was trying to set his secondary, starlight scope up but the gentle rain was screwing with the thermal effects. Mumbling curses under his breath he started to pan the weapon along the path they had taken. He saw the two fuzzy blobs that represented Wilhelm and Jonathan, and a few tiny spots that represented large birds and such. On the second sweep a small area near alpha site suddenly lit up, then faded quickly. As the remaining heat dissipated, he could make out two human shapes. Lowering his rifle He immediately grabbed the radios headset.

"Wilhelm I just." The rest of his statement was cut off. The position he was about to call out was light up in a brilliant burst of orange light. A split second later a loud bang was heard. Krauss quickly checked his scope the two figures were both laying on the ground.

"Run to alpha site NOW, I think we just found some more people from Earth."

Ozpin and Adam were flying in a search pattern with the bullhead. So they both saw the massive heat bloom. When the bullhead picked up the transmission, Adam immediately sought more information.

"Krauss are they far from where the others are?"

The radio let out an odd sound before letting them hear Krauss's reply.

"One of them is definitely dead, I barely see his heat sig, the other one's… flamethrower."

Ozpin and Adam naturally didn't quite understand. Ozpin asked. "What do you mean."

"One of them had a flamethrower, that's what that heat bloom was. That puts them in WW1 or the Pacific front."

"How close are Jonathan and Wilhelm?" Asked Adam.

"Uh only a few hundred yards now."

Back in the tree, Krauss continued to scan the surrounding in both thermal and night vision. He finally found a group of eight human sized targets. The area around them chaotically fluctuating in temperature .He reached for the radio and started talking to the ground team.

"You two jug heads at alpha site yet?"

Wilhelm replied promptly "Ja these uniforms, they are definitely WW1."

"Any ID on them."

"Uh the American is ,heh, John Doe." A pause when the through. "It looks like he was a shotgunner, though his trench guns seems oversized. Uh wait one."

"What? something interesting I hope."

Wilhelm's reply was not what he was expecting. "It seems that this one is chambered in 8 gauge."

Krauss grinned, he had always wanted an 8 gauge, but "stupid anti fun laws" (Yes I would love to have an 8 gauge. You'd be able to shred anything! Plus Cannons.) had stopped him from even really looking for one. He asked "Ok so who is the other guy?"

"No clue, his ID disk was hit by the shotgun, though he's German and sees to have a full flamethrower tank."

What the soldiers were not expecting was for Ozpin to call out."Shotgun." Had Ozpin just called dibs on a dead man's gun? Well better grab it while they still could.

Krauss letting his inner pyro, Well just pyro would be a better term out, Shouted in the mic "Mien Flammenwerfer."

An array of interesting swears came over the mic.

"Guys enough. I think I found the HVTs. They're about a kilometer from Wilhelm's position. Uh my bearing is 275, yours should be 150ish." the transport swiftly moved to collect the three ground members of Airborne and moved to the lost team's position.

The raging inferno around around the two teams was only rivaled by the massive amounts of ice littering the clearing. It was making a lot of people look like idiots for not spotting it sooner. Ruby was little more the a red blur in the dark the scythe trailing behind her collecting arms, legs, and heads. The inferno that was Yang was standing atop a sizable mound of dead and dissolving grimm, shotguns and fists seeming to make an unbreakable wall. Nora was laughing as she crushed grimm with her hammer, the grimm even backed away slightly when near her. Ren and Blake's ambushes toppled all but the quickest of the grimm. Near the center the three swords or Jaune, Pyrrha, and Weiss flashed and cut through grimm with ridiculous speed. They were doing exceptionally well but they were growing tired. They had been fighting and searching for a few hours now. Ren was now on the defensive, pistols blazing. Yang had stopped shooting, Ruby had even slowed down to the point where someone could almost keep pace with her. Weiss was only meleeing her opponents. then things started to get real bad, a massive Ursa Major appeared. It must have been twenty feet tall, there was no way they could kill it. At full power they probably could have, but after several hours of exhausting work? Not going to happen. Their savior appeared in a hail of high velocity lead.

Inside the bullhead Wilhelm and Jonathan lay side by side, Machine guns pointing out of the door. Krauss and Adam stood ready beside them.

"FIRE!" triggers were squeezed and a hail of rounds fell to the earth. The steady, measured reports of the american guns mixed with odd cracking of the FG-42. The forest seemed to wither under the bombardment. The Bullhead flew in low and dropped the fireteam. Landing, the three men proceeded to fire on anything nonhuman. Adam had taken the 1887 and was blasting Grimm with 8 gauged vengeance. The Grimm came apart in ribbons. Jonathan had set up just right to cut off the advancing Grimm. Adam hurried the kids toward the waiting transport. Wilhelm and Krauss placed shots center mass on the Grimm from the bullhead's open door. The fast, Accurate shooting saved Yang from the task of finding a new spine as they boarded.

With arrival of the bullhead and Airborne, the teens were secured and safe once more. They could tell they were in serious trouble. The brief stop to pick up two white sheets only raised the amount of dread they felt. The ride was utterly silent. The only thing they could make out was a few tiny squeaks from the Flammenwerfer and that Krauss and Wilhelm were inspecting accompanied by whispered German. They had made it back to Bravo site in a minute. Airborne hopped out to gather any of the equipment left in the tree. After they squared away the gear the bullhead turned back to Beacon.

After arriving the three teams were marched up to the cog office where they began to discuss the cluster fuck that was the evening. Ozpin began by reading off the LONG list of rules they broke.

"Fireteam Airborne." The men stood and snapped to attention. "You broke curfew, planned to ditched classes for three days, forged my signature, stole a bullhead, decided that patrolling the Emerald Forest in the middle of the night would be an effective use of your time, and nearly killed a student." Adam and the rest stood perfectly still." You are hereby prohibited from sparring with any students till I figure out what happened. You will be writing a through essay of what you were thinking while confined to your room for the next three days when out of class. Am I understood?"

Adam went to reason with the professor, but he would have none of it. "Sir if you."

Ozpin roared back" _AM I UNDERSTOOD LIEUTENANT_!" The kids flinched, they had never heard Ozpin raze his voice above that of a calm conversation. Airborne somehow, stood straighter and chorused

"SIR, YES SIR!"

Ozpin seemed to deflate.

"At ease." Airborne knew damn well not to even blink." Teams RWBY and JNPR."

The other two teams stiffened preparing for the worst.

"You will be joining fireteam Airborne in their punishment. Why you did not simply inform a member of staff of what happened is beyond me. Airborne even instructed you not to follow them. What Airborne did was incredibly stupid at best, but, they are composed of combat veterans who are trained and equipped to undertake such a task. You eight while strong and incredibly gifted, are not even finished with your first year of training."

Ruby and Jaune, the kind hearted souls they were tried to shift the blame. "Professor this is my fault." They said nearly simultaneously.

"Maybe it is. Maybe it is Your team's fault for following the two of you. Or is it Airborne's for shooting Mr. Winchester and running, perhaps it is even my fault for not taking the massive difference between our worlds into consideration. I hope you understand the folly of your actions, all of you. William."

Krauss turned to face Ozpin."Sir?"

"Fire damage is one of the few things my assistant can not readily repair."

Krauss shifted guilty, and the flammenwerfer tank on his back made a faint sloshing sound.

"You are dismissed." RWBY and JNPR walked out with Airborne hot on their heels. "Airborne, make sure they get some food." The four men nodded and exited the room.


	12. Cooking with Airborne

**AN: I am so sorry for not having this up on time. I just got back from DC after preforming in the 4th of July parade there. I got back from a 14 hour bus trip at 4:30 in the morning so I was basicly passed out all of Wednesday. I hoped you all enjoyed the 4th if your from the states like me. If your not, well happy Sunday. As we return to Warzone, we get to experience Slav cooking with Airborne and a bit of background building. And yes look up Life of Boris for the instructions on the dishes, you will want to subscribe. Uh that's all I have, please tell me what I fucked up so I can attempt to fix it.**

On the way to their dorms, Airborne snuck in the dining hall and stole some food, carried off a bench, and stole a vacuum. Phyrra immediately tried to get them to put back the extra devices but Airborne ignored her and proceed to run down to their barracks, RWBY and JNPR reluctantly followed. They arrived to find Krauss and Jonathan tearing the bench to small pieces and throwing them into the barrel. Adam was setting up the vacuum to suck smoke out of the room and into the vents from the looks of it. Wilhelm was lighting the flammenwerfer.

"What on Remnant are you four doing." Exclaimed Weiss.

Krauss displayed that crazed grin of his and answered. "Cooking! Kitchen's closed, so we're making Kompot And Borsch."

(Kompot is kinda like a tea except you simply drop the whole fruit in the pot. And Borsch is a slavic soup . Lookup Life of Borris if you want to make either yourself, it's really tasty.)

Whatever Weiss was about to say was cut off when Wilhelm opened up with the flammenwerfer into the "stove". All but Krauss jumped back in surprise.

"Christ! A little warning next time will ya." Exclaimed Adam.

"Hey I kinda know what I'm doing."

The kids watched as Airborne prepared the food. Krauss joked about replacing all the water with vodka to make it more Slav. Airborne laughed their heads off at that. The kids were rightly a bit confused at that. Jonathan had to keep an eye on Ruby who seemed utterly determined to eat all the strawberries for the kompot. After a while in the fire, the four steel helmets had the finished meal in them. Adam gathered enough mess tins and began to serve everyone the soup and drink.

Airborne offered up the table to the kids and took to the corner where the "stove" sat. They were soon joined by Ren and Jaune who had been shooed away from the table. The boys traded stories of home. Krauss telling of his two brothers, Adam of his wife, Jonathan's mother and father, And poor Jaune and his seven sisters. Ren and Wilhelm stayed pretty quiet. Turns out most of the group came from Chicago and it's suburbs. As their spoons started scraping to bottoms of the bowls Krauss pointed something out.

"I noticed you remnants all about showy acrobatic stuff when you fight, why is that?"

Ren pondered the question."Awhile back there was a massive war, the incredibly oppressive governments at the time even began destroying art." The three Americans looked at Wilhelm. Said person muttered an interesting string of curses involving mothers, potatoes, an 88 and a cavalry sword. "After the war people became more … Expressive of their personality and emotions, that's why you gets names like Ruby and Emerald. How Yang and Nora's fighting mirrors their personality. How do your people fight Stg. ?"

Krauss paused. He got up and walked to his bag and fished out his laptop. He walked over and sat back down he fiddled with it for a minute before flipping it around to show the group.

"While Two started a witch hunt for anything Nazi related, no war really changed anything globally besides tactics." He hit a button. "This is footage from a movie that pretty accurate to the landings at Normandy during the second world war. Just replace the green with my ACUs and many more automatics. To date it was the largest Amphibious invasion ever. Uh don't talk about this to Ozpin, he'll have my head for this." (Cue Saving Private Ryan beach scene.) Ren and Jaune sat mesmerized by the utter horror that was combat to Airborne. The landing seemed like suicide. Auras couldn't protect you here only luck could, and she wasn't very kind. The relentless machine gun Fire swept through the drowning men, those who made it to the flat sandy beaches found little shelter from the literal wall of lead raining on their position. Dead and dying men were everywhere, the grey sand and water turned red with the blood of combatants. Ren couldn't help but feel sorry for those medicals. He generally ended up patching up JNPR and sometimes even RWBY when things got bad. Jaune looked at how the sergeants and higher ups commanded. They willingly took actions that would and did get people killed to accomplish their objectives. But the way the men did those tasks unflinchingly, that is what Jaune wanted to be able to do. To lead without doubt trailing his thoughts.

As the battle raged on krauss's laptop, The other half of the room sat eating the soup, that to the girl's surprise even Weiss seemed to like. Heck Blake was on a fourth bowl.

"Ruby." asked Weiss. Ruby looked up from her bowl, half a turnip hanging from her mouth. "es viss!" Weiss frowned.

"Swallow your food first you dolt." Hearing this she promptly swallowed the remaining food. "What is it Wiess?" While the Heiress was well knowledged in the uses of dust in weapons many of the finer points outside the use of raw dust escaped her grasp. For instance the types that could be used to propel bullets. So she scraped a bit of the pile from empty casing towards Ruby.

"Does this look like any Dust you would use in bullets?"

Ruby leaned closer to examine the powder. She could immediately tell it wasn't Dust. Ground Dust used in propellant was made of irregular bits that were roughly cubular like sand. This was shaped as small tubes of pure black. "This isn't any Dust I know of. Where did you get this?" Weiss simply held up the case. "Wait, that's what Airborne uses?"

"Well it came out of one of their bullets didn't it."

Yang, ever the people person said "I'll ask them about it."

She got up and walked over to the "Man Corner" as she had dubbed it. She took one look at the video that was playing and nearly gagged. It seemed to be a recording of a war but. Simply put it was brutal and callous. None of the grace and flow like you would see with hunters, just a continuous bloody killing field, men holding organs in, others dragging wounded only to find they were dead, and so so much worse.

"Monty! What the hell are you six watching!" Krauss paused the blood bath and looked up.

"This? It's a reenactment of the D-Day landings during our second world war. These two."he pointed at the other Americans. "Were dropped behind the lines a few hours before hand to help reduce casualties. Saved a lot of lives, by the time the second and third waves hit the beaches most of the opposition was dead." Yang was understandingly shocked."How many died?"

Krauss shrugged" I don't know this is old history to me. El-tee any input?" The Lieutenant pondered the question "Eh sorry i haven't remembered either i just know omaha, this beach, had by far the worse fighting." Yang suddenly seemed to remember something. "Krauss, What kind of dust do you use in your rifle? Ruby is obsessing over this bullet." She held up the case.

Krauss's brow furrowed. "We don't use dust it's, we don't have any. 7.62 NATO are just smokeless powder, no idea what's the .30-06s or 8mm though. " he looked to Adam "is it cordite?"

Adam shook his head. "That'll be Brits son. They shove that shit in everything."

Yang was taking in the information she realized that Krauss was still using incorrect measurements. "Wait you said 7.62."

"Da"

"Ruby said that 9.5 mm." Airborne looked at each other.

"How tall do you think the Sergeant is?" Asked Wilhelm. Krauss stood straight and placed his back against the wall.

Yang examined him. "I'd say seven and a half feet maybe more."

Krauss raised an eyebrow. "No one's that tall. I'm only 6'2". He paused to think for a second. "What is the circumference of Remnant?"

Yang sat back in thought for a minute be turning to the table. "Weiss what's the circumference of Remnant?"

"40000 kilometers. Why would you want to know that." Answered the puzzled heiress.

"Airborne wanted to know."

Krauss was deep in internal mathematics for a while before he came to his conclusion. "Earth is larger by a quarter." It clicked for Airborne, why everything was so much smaller, why previously heavy objects became paperweights.

Pyhrra tried to get clarification "what do you mean larger?"

"On Earth Krauss is 6'2" tall. Here is is 7'6". Those dimensions you listed off for krauss's round? Their almost exactly 1.25 the size. The only reason we are even close strength wise is because Earth's Gravity is stronger. If this was equal gravity you'd stomp us into the ground." Explained Wilhelm. "Though that doesn't explain how those rounds tore through Cardin's aura."

Ruby was the one to reply. "Dust rounds generally move at a 1000 feet per second (fps) at high caliber rifle sizes, maybe yours move faster?"

Airborne was kinda surprised, Remnant had massive computing and engineering advantages over Earth but they had almost pathetic weapons tech. Jonathan said. "I had a BB gun, a gun that shoots using compressed air, that had higher fps. 30-06 has a muzzle velocity of 2200 fps minimum. If you get some hotter rounds they go up till almost 3000. The 8mm Mauser had even higher velocities."

Ruby was shocked. Her sweetheart , the gun she had made and tooled to get the best performance you'd find, was outpaced by a massed produced rifle. In a blur of red rose petals she appeared in front of our sergeant and began speaking in a rush of words."Howdoyoudothat! Thatslikethecoolestthingeverandgivesyousomuchmorerange." Before she could compleatly overwhelm the Sergeant, Yang pulled her away.

"Sis calm down, do you remember what happened to Cardin? That was from a pistol round. If you put something like that in Crescent Rose, you'd kill someone." Ruby remembered that and shrunk back into her cape. Wilhelm raised an interesting view point. "Your people rely heavily on Dust. Have you ever used other sources for power and weapons?"

Weiss shook her head. "Before the discovery of Dust, we relied on coal power for most tasks. As for weapons gunpowder was the norm. What do you use?"

Wilhelm answered" It's a huge mix. Coal is used out in far rural areas occasionally, but Oil and it many refined states take care of most of the work. From what Krauss said when we arrived, we also can get energy from splitting atoms in a controlled environment. That process while releasing massive amounts of energy, is incredibly dangerous in a weaponized form easily capable of wiping Vale or another kingdom clean off the map."

Krauss took over. "Nuclear power is a closely guarded secret and a dangerous technology. It is relatively clean though. It obviously pales when compared to wind or solar Sources. Though I guess your reliance on dust is based on availability. Oil is somewhat rare and hard to obtain, you have to dig deep and somethimes it has to be in the middle of the oceans."

The conversation rolled on and on. Eventually it was finalized. Earth's Oil had higher energy outputs at the cost of stability and long term effects, while Remnant's Dust was weaker, but much more stable with no notable pollution. Since oil was an ingredient in smokeless powder it made sense why it was so much more potent. Airborne noticed it was 3AM at the that moment and shooed the kids off to bed.


	13. Of Blin and BTRs

**AN: Well shit, I ment to get this up around 1300 and it's almost 1900. Eh at least it still on time. This is the first chapter written entirely with the one week upload schedule, so expect it to be of a bit poorer quality. Borrowing an small idea from** ** _New World Blues_** **involving Nora and pancakes something happens in this chapter that might shock some people. Well it probably won't shock anyone who has stuck around. So remember kids think before you shoot.**

As the three days of punishment passed, Airborne made themselves scarce. After that night A former training droid with a scroll duct taped to its head would show up in classes with the words "Property of Fireteam Airborne No touchy." Scrawled across it's chest and back. The droid would record the lecture, collect homework, and return it the next day finished by Airborne. The Kitchen staff had reported some missing food, the wood shop teacher also reported some of his stock was missing along with a handsaw. Both were chalked up to Airborne's doppelgänger. Attempts to follow the converted droid to the fireteam's new lair were met with mixed success. The droid could be tracked to a wing of the dorm buildings but afterwards it would vanish. By the fifth day, the staff were getting slightly edgy. Shell casings matching those used by the AWOL Fireteam was found at a range. Later in the day a broken longsword made of wood was found in one of the hallways, the blade was covered in the strange runes Airborne was known to leave behind. It was a whole week before a single person from the team was identified. A sharp eyed Fanus caught sight of one of the men at two in the morning. Considering he wasn't freakishly tall it was probably Jonathon.

Six more days passed before Airborne was seen at a public event. Krauss, who had been designated as the squad cook, was making Blin (Slav, Deep fried pancakes, super tasty.) at a table in the dining hall for the rest of the fireteam gathered around him as the students trickled in for breakfast. The sister teams of RWBY and JNPR immediately honed in on the group of men. Jaune was the one who asked the most prominent question.

"Uh where were you guys? You were missing for like two weeks." Krauss shrugged and flipped the Blin, forgetting the oil in the pan and spraying it in an arc. Krauss dropped the pan back onto the camp stove and hopped back rubbing his hand and cursing in Russian.

"Sergeant you ok?" Asked Jonathan.

Krauss nodded."Pizdec. Yes I'm fine I keep forgetting boiling oil is hot."

The private chuckled to himself. The teens sat down around the soldiers. Nora ,while not recognizing them as the pancakes she would normally eat, saw the Blin and immediately rushed up to Krauss's face. "Are those Pancakes! Please let me taste the, they must be so good!"

The Marksman turned cook shrugged, and grabbed a plate with a fresh Blin on it. Sprinkling a bit of powdered sugar on it, he handed it to the hyperactive girl. She immediately began eating at the deep fried dough. Ren, who had been lying his head on the table picked it up to notice Nora and the white powder covering the breakfast food. His face went almost as white as Weiss's dress.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is."

Krauss hung his head in shame. "Zayebis."(R. Fucking great.)

Nora, in the brief time it had taken to finish their conversation, had eaten the entire Blin and began to...shake. Everyone slowly inched from the girl.

Ren spoke in a controlled monotone. "Nora I need."

Nora blurred to his side so fast it made Ruby look slow. She proceeded to let loose a noise that was probably a long sentence but became slurred into a single sound. Ren knew it was too late. Before anyone could do anything a large hole appeared midway up the back wall of the dining hall. Bright sunlight shined through for a few seconds before it was eclipsed by a silver flare and wash of heat. Inside the hole a silver portal floated gently. Airborne immediately flipped the table so it would face the portal and took cover behind it. "Kids get everyone clear then get Goodwitch, now." Adam's tone left no room for argument. The two teams began slowly guiding the thankfully small numbers of students back towards the doors.

As the last of the students were leaving, the portal flashed brighter and flung out a hulking APC. The Armor rolled twice crushing its turret to scrap and wrecking the left sides wheels. It came to a stop on its side. The men of Airborne drew their sidearms and moved to place themselves behind the stone pillars in the room. A hatch was flung open and a man in a impressive set of armor clambered out. The armor looked like a heavy Kevlar set in red and black with a exoskeleton running along the back of his body. The man's helmet was a full face affair with an inbuilt gasmask. He cradled what appeared to be a RPK in his hands. Two more climbed out one was a man the other looked much more feminine. The man wore a similar suit to the first, but without the exoskeleton and in a blue and green coloring. He held a AK12 from the looks of it. The woman was dressed apart from the others. Her gear resembled something closer to A NBC suit with a large fishbowl style helmet sealed around her head. Her weapon was the strangest of them all. It was shaped like a rifle but possessed a strange ringed barrel, wire traveled up and down its length. Krauss thought the APC looked like a BTR but due to it's current condition he couldn't say. If things turned bad this could be ugly their pistols wouldn't pen 80% of the armor.

Arrivals point of view.

Artyom was a little surprised. This was not the wastes he was in minutes ago. It resembled a scene from a book he read a long time ago. He looked to Sahsa to see if she knew where they were. Her reply was in broken Ukrainian

"This is not what I remembered. Arkady said it was in a forest not a." She paused and pointed at one of the many pillars lining the great hall.

Arkady moved towards it with his rifle up.

A man stepped out from behind it dressed in what seemed to be the uniform of a WWII American. Oddly he had a modern day ballistic vest on. His hands were wrapped around a pistol that was lowered off of them. What ever he said was unknown to us, none of us English. A second man dressed in what looked like modern day US camo. Like the previous, a pistol was in his hands. "Uh you guys alright?" His Russian was ok it had a shit accent though. "Let's not do anything crazy alright, we are just as confused as you three are." Arkady was about to reply when a set of doors burst open. Artyom immediately targeted the area and opened fire. A burst of bullets flew towards a started women. Luckily Artyom's aim was off and he missed all but two. Both struck her in the shoulder and unknowingly depleted her Aura. She was quickly tackled to the ground by a third man. The two men who had previously tried to defuse the situation opened fire with their pistols.

We scattered and went to cover. Sasha snapped a shot off with the Gauss gun at the modern American. It missed and instead struck a pillar. The hypersonic round blew out the other side in a spray of stone chips and burned itself in a wall. Arkady popped up to throw a burst down range. A sharper report rang through the hall and Arkady's head snapped back. His helmet had saved his life but the force of the bullet had knocked him into a daze. He stood up and shook his head to clear the dizziness. It was a gut reaction and it cost him his life six rounds crashed into him. Three crashed into his neck and pierced the seal there, ripping his throat out in a spray of blood and bone. Artyom saw that behind the original three was one more man, Crouching behind cover with a long barreled pistol.

His RPK rattled out a burst and struck dead center on the one in grey knocking him on his ass. He floundered to get back up but another burst clipped his leg. Sasha had pinpointed where the second American had hid and put a round through the pillar he was behind. The Gauss gun pierced the stone and a wet thud was heard along with a shouted curse in English as the man collapsed. The incoming fire had slacked for a few seconds. Sasha was aiming at were the third member of the opposition was hiding when a bullet hit her rifle and knocked it away. She drew a makarov and went for her gun. She had just grabbed it when a bullet went straight through her faceplate and out the back of head. Artyom turned to see where the shot had came from but instead saw a massive scythe bearing down on him.

He desperately rolled out of the way. He was so close to getting clear when the blade cleaved right through his leg. His stop in the roll was finalized when the tip of the scythe pinned him through his gut into the cement. He couldn't feel his legs, that was not good. He lifted his gaze to find his attacker. She was a child! No older than ten. The look on her face was one of horror, like she didn't mean to put a scythe twice the size of herself into his chest. What was she expecting some kind of magic shield? She started talking in a rapid English. Her hand gestures were.. Apologic? It didn't matter now he had lost to much blood. "Fuck… Well." He gasped futilely as a bit of blood rolled from his lips. "Such is life in the zone."

Goodwitch surveyed the damage. Wilhelm lay with his back against a pillar holding his leg wound. Krauss was lying face down in a growing pool of blood. Jonathan was trying to stem the bleeding. Ruby had by all accounts just killed someone and was rocking back and forth next to the APC once again covered in blood. Adam was helping Wilhelm Off the ground now. She sighed, she would have to comfort the girl. She walked over to where Ruby lay, grimacing at the mess the corpses of the three were making."Mrs Rose, we have to leave now. Come with me." She gently pulled the girl from the ground and started to lead her away from the bodies. The sergeant was being carried between Jonathan and Ren. Both trying to heal to massive wound in the man's gut. They were hurried out past the crowd of students.

Adam had placed a makeshift bandage on Wilhelm's leg and found him a crutch to hobble about with and instructions to get to the infirmary. Adam moved to investigate the large Wreck of the BTR. As he checked inside, he saw a body in a similar suit to other two men. This suit also had an exoskeleton but was damaged like the other. There was a set of three rifles hanging in a ceiling rack that looked like a Mosin, but he wasn't sure. He walked back out of the BTR and noticed that Ruby's scythe was still buried in the gut of her kill. He frowned, he would have to get that to her team or the girl herself. Gingerly grasping the shaft he pulled it loose from the corpse. He walked over to the serving line and got a cup, filled it with water, and poured it over the blade to clean it of it's mark. After a minute of searching he found the button to collapse it to its sheath. He walked past the burst open doors and saw a major portion of the student body being held back by some yellow tape and half a dozen guards. He got looks of shock and horror from a lot of the students, after all he had quite a bit of blood on his uniform from treating Wilhelm and climbing about the bodies. Adam walked over to the centermost man. "You're going to need four bags." the guard nodded. Adam spotted the remaining two of JNPR. He had a lot of questions and explaintions to hand out.

 **So yeah more death, who fault it is will be THOROUGHLY discussed in the next chapter.**


	14. Damage Control 101

**AN: Ok it's official I fucking hate the dentist. A had to get a cavity filled today. Along with making half my face numb, it also managed to give me a migraine of epic proportions. That why I'm uploading this at 2245instead of a reasonable time like 1500 or 1700. Anyways welcome back to the shit show. Last chapter we got a BTR and a few Slavics, and then we killed them all, such fun. The chapter is probably a bit short, but I wrote most of it Tuesday night. So enjoy the frantic attempts at dammage control and some of Wilhelm's past. And please let me know what I screwed up on so I can fix it. It's literally the whole reason I'm writing this.**

Looking through the crowd he saw JP. As he walked over to them the students parted around the blood stained soldier. "Jaune where did the rest of RWBY go?"

Jaune answered quickly"they followed Ruby down to the infirmary. What happened?" Adam mentally debated telling them what Ruby had done. "Follow me then, I need to check on my men." The partners followed him through Beacon's halls. Adam walked into the infirmary and was greeted with mass Chaos. Medical staff rushed back and forth between Krauss and supply cabinets. One nurse was standing on the edge of the group scribbling furiously on a clipboard.

"Miss." He asked "How are they?"

The nurse looked up. "And you are?"

Adam mentally rolled his eyes."2nd Lieutenant McCarthy, Their commanding Officer."

The nurse shrugged indefinitely "Wilhelm is going to be released tomorrow, fully healed."

Adam was surprised to say the least, a bullet wound would normally take weeks to fully heal."Only a day?"

She nodded"Yes it's amazing what a few aura infusions can do isn't it. Your other man is incredibly lucky, a few more minutes and he would have been beyond our care. He owes his life to that Ruby girl once more. The bullet caused a lot of internal bleeding, ripped a chunk from his stomach and missed his spine by margins no one wants to know. I think we could release him by the end of the week, but he'll be out of i until then." Adam nodded. So the Nazi bastard was going to be fine, and Krauss would be in a week long coma. lot better than he expected, he had fully expected to lose his marksman. This planet had some truly impressive technology.

In the corner team WBY, Ren and Goodwitch trying to comfort Ruby. Adam walked over with Jaune and Pyrrha in tow. Yang immediately rounded on Adam."What the fuck happened! Why is my little sister catatonic!"

Adam figured this was going to happen. "This is the basic version, When you guys left a BTR, an APC, from our world crashed through and spit out two guys and a girl. Krauss spoke some Russian, and then the shooting started." Adam sighed."One of them freaked when Goodwitch barged in, almost killed her. Then it got ugly fast we only had pistols, the had machine guns and something that I've never seen before. Jonathan neutralized one with a shot at the neck." He pointed behind him at the crowd of medics." then whatever that woman had put a shot straight through a pillar and through Krauss. She took a round to the face, then Wilhelm took a bullet to the thigh. Finally Ruby came out of nowhere and got the last one, I don't know what she thinking."

The kids stood there. Two members of Airborne were going to be out of it for a while, and Ruby had… Did he mean that RUBY had just killed someone?!

Yang shakily asked "When you say got him."

Adam nodded. "You don't walk off a missing leg and a scythe through the chest." He reached behind his back and unclipped Crescent Rose from his back. "I think I got all the blood off." Yang numbly accepted the weapon and held it close to her chest. No longer would Crescent Rose be a tool of the childish and hyperactive huntress, it would be the weapon of killer. As if suddenly revolted by the weapon, she practically threw it on the side of Ruby's bed.

"Mrs. Goodwitch, will she be alright?"

She gave him a glare that would be capable of stopping a ICBM mid flight. "Your Fireteam has caused problem after problem since your arrival." She stood up. "I have half the mind too."

"MADAM!" She stopped immediately. "You know full well what happened wasn't our fault. If we could pin the blame on anyone it would be you."

She was taken back at the man's tone. "How in the name of God would this be MY FAULT!" Adam was about to give a furious reply when Yang slugged him and Glyda lightly in the gut. Adam dropped to a knee trying to replace the air in his lungs. Glyda simply took a step back.

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" Roared Yang. "You're acting like children. From what he said, you caused them to panic and got two of Airborne Hospitalized. My Sister is completely beside herself right now."

Adam took in a shaky breath and stood back up to his full height 7'3". "Ms. Long let me or one of Airborne talk to her about this. This is one of the few things we have to experience in."

Yang immediately said "No way in hell are you guys coming near my sister after what happened."

Suddenly Blake pulled Yang away and started a hushed conversation. Soon it was joined by frantic hand movements, that grew into full on swinging arms. Yang seemed to give in to the whatever the ninja was saying, and just blankly gestured to the group around Ruby's bed. The two walked back. "Weiss, Jaune, Ren, Pyrrha, let's go find Nora before something happens again." Said Yang with a look that gave no room for augment. She looked at the lone teacher."Professor could you help us too?"

Goodwitch figured out what Blake was doing, and was mildly surprised when she stayed behind. Anyone could be a killer she remembered when she looked to the bed where Ruby lay. "Yes it might be best if I were to help minimize the collateral damage." She got up and followed the students out.

Wilhelm spoke up from the other side. "Mind including me and the private in this sir?"

Adam blinked and turned to Blake." I'll let you talk first, this is probably a story you want to keep close." He walked over to Wilhelm and a bloodied Jonathan began talking in a hushed German. The Lieutenants subordinates nodded along to his orders.

"Ruby, I want you to listen to me" Blake kept her tone low and soft, yet direct. Amazingly she seemed to respond lifting her head slightly. "Your first kill will always be the hardest to get over. It doesn't get easier with time and it will weigh on your conscious for years to come."

She paused to let Ruby process the words. "I'm not going to pretend to know what you were thinking Ruby, but that man was a serious threat. Krauss would have died if you hadn't intervened. Mine was far less noble, it was two years, four months, twenty six days." She looked to the clock on the wall." And six hours ago. My former partner " She spit out the word like it was acid." And I needed to get a shipment of food to our people at the camp. If we didn't get the food In a few days we would starve to death.

The target was a atlas supply convoy, it was only a truck and a motorcycle with a machinegun. We blew up the motorcycle and knocked out the two crew, they would need medical attention but would live. The truck drivers were pulled out and knocked unconscious. I moved to open the back, and was jumped by a third guard we didn't see. He had a SMG and fired a few rounds at me. I dodged and did a parry with Gamble, And it went straight through him. I still don't know how i didn't see the bandages around his leg till i had run him clean through. He was completely out of aura, he wasn't even Atlas, he was just a traveler they had pick up and tried to help. I felt horrible for weeks after, but i got over it by talking about it. I know you can do this too."

It was at that moment that whatever had kept the little redhead from speaking for so long broke."But I didn't mean to kill him! He could have a family, kids, friends, people that need him." Ruby started to cry softly. "What did they even do to deserve this, they arrived no different than Krauss why did they have to die."

Blake leaned back slightly. "They didn't. What happened was an accident, a tragic one yes, but an accident none the less. As far as we know Ruby they were already considered dead."

The three able bodied members of Airborne limped over to Ruby's bed side and placed Wilhelm in a nearby chair, and sat flanking him. Blake had scooted imperceptibly away from Wilhelm. As a whole, Airborne gave off an air of uneasiness, but it was much stronger coming off Wilhelm. The five sat in an uncomfortable silence for a minute with only slight beeping coming from the heart rate monitor hooked up to Krauss. Adam gently nudged Wilhelm's uninjured leg.

"Miss Rose, I would like to say thank you on behalf of the sergeant, he had maybe five minutes in him when he got here." Ruby nodded numbly. "I am saddened that you had to go to such lengths to secure our safety, I should be the only one here with a kill at such an age." Ruby looked up questioningly at the Fallschirmjager. "I was only 14 when i made my first kill." everyone in the room looked on in shock.

"What the hell did you do?" asked a surprised Adam.

"I was getting chased by a bunch of H.J. pricks across a bridge. They had one lying in wait near the end. As I ran past, I punched him in the throat, and it broke his neck. I took his knife and stuck two more of them, i have no idea what happened to those two. I just ran for the hills, and into a Waffen-SS camp. As a kicker that's also how i got conscripted."

Blake was flabbergasted."You were conscripted at 14! Your were at least three years under age, how could they do that!?"

"How old do you think I am Ms. Belladonna?" Asked Wilhelm

Blake scrutinized the German. "20 years old or so. Why?"

A low chuckle escaped his lips" I'm 18, to them I looked to be the age of conscription. Plus they were probably just going to shoot me if I didn't join. I'm still scratching my head how I ended up in a SS Fallschamjäger unit though."

Blake wasn't really getting it though."What do you mean?"

Airborne looked weary at Ruby who seemed to have fallen asleep on the hospital bed. The three talked quickly in a hushed Italian and settled on an agreement. "This doesn't ever leave this room, understood. We already have a rock reputation here, we can't afford to jeopardize it further."

The three started to explain the horrible conditions of WWII for her. With each sentence Blake's face turned slowly to horror. She couldn't understand why anyone could do anything like this. When Wilhelm started on the camps, Blake had to ask him to stop. The Faunas were known to be mistreated, they had even tried to deported in mass, but no one ever suggested killing her entire race. The fact that this happened enough to make Earth create a whole new word to define it was astonishing, And over something as petty as skin color or religious practices was just absurd.

"You should get going to classes, we have to go clean up the dining hall." Wilhelm was gently lifted from his seat and replaced on his bed. The remaining three walked out of the infirmary to their self appointed roles. Adam and Jonathan had quite a bit of fixing to do in the dining hall, and Blake had to make sure Yang didn't go crazy.


	15. Transportation?

**AN: Hey guys yea miss me? No. Figures. I'm sorry for skipping last weeks update, I've had a lot between dealing with that ass of a director for band, you must get permission to leave a fine arts class from the director. I play Tuba, You might see the problem. But that was last week! what was holding me back this time? Well some family came in from Colorado for the week and I was expected to talk to them. Oh and I started writing a new fanfic, it's *gasp* a react fic. Yep you can throw those rotten tomatoes now. First chapter is Ruby stealing my laptop and watching the** ** _Prepare to Cry on Artorias. Eh_** **that's enough author update for now. Not much happens this chapter, We move the BTR and get some plans going about restoring our motor pool. Oh and someone happens to see a pretty lady!**

The two Americans Made their way back to the dorm to change into their spare uniforms and set the bloodied ones the wore to wash. They eventually found their way back to BTR's wreck. The dining hall had been practically sealed. Currently the staff had set up a dozen or so tents and were cooking under them. Students were everywhere They took notice that the bodies had been bagged and taken to the morgue where the rest of what would be considered Airborne lay. Adam grimly noted that the two squads still needed their final rites along with their four Slavics.

"What did Krauss do with his men?"

Jonathan looked up from the pile of spent shells he was collecting. "Sir?"

"What did Krauss do with his men, they all died. He said he gave them their final rites but I don't see any graves."

"I don't know." He replied. After mulling it over for a few seconds he asked. "Doesn't he spend a lot of time near the cliff?"

"Yeah… did he throw them off?"

"While the Sarge has a few screws loose I don't think he'd do that."

Adam sighed. "I guess we'll ask him when he wakes up. Come one let's take care of the BTR."

The two walked over and crawled inside. Adam reached up and began to unfasten the rifle rack mounted to the ceiling, while Jonathan was pulling storage bins from their impromptu mountings and putting them outside.

"The Barracks can't have enough room for all this shit." Stated Jonathan. Adam looked at the growing pile and the still quite full APC. Their quarters were already crowded and cramped, there was no way they could fit all the arrival's gear in the remaining space.

"Your right. We could throw this shit with the Humvee, that hanger has a good deal of space in it still. Will have to contact Ozpin though." Jonathan switched to Italian.

"Are you sure about that sir, that hanger has pretty loose security. Bravo site is still mostly empty, and."

Adam cut him off before he finish. "Doesn't exist yet. Besides we still would need more room. I'll call Ozpin and see if we can get some heavy lift gear or a few extra hands." Adam stepped away for a few minutes to place the call.

"Alright we have a bullhead on the way, put everything back and seal it tight."

The two began transferring the pile back to the BTR. In ten minutes the task was complete. The two sat on the top of the APC. A cigarette and a cigar burned in their teeth.

(It's the mid 40's everyone smoked, hell it was even "good" for you.)

"I miss the front." Stated Jonathan dejectedly. "We had our lives there, this world is just so alien to us, even Krauss is out of place here." He took a drag on his cigarette and exhaled a plume of smoke. "Were not these super hero huntsmen, we're soldiers Adam, what are we doing."

Adam leaned back into the remains of the turret. "I really don't know John." He took a long breath through his cigar. "What else are we supposed to do? We took an oath to serve The States, those don't exist anymore. Krauss is trying to protect those who can't protect themselves. Maybe we should join that belief. What else would we do, become teachers? We both make horrible school teachers." The both laughed. Acting like a pair of drill sergeants would probably not work out so well here. "God I miss her." He muttered under his breath.

Jonathan said. "I'm sure Alice is doing fine sir, she was smart enough to marry you after all." They sat back and simply thought about what they had done that led up to this cluster fuck.

The two Airborne were brought out of their internal monologues by the wail of a bullhead's engines. The two stamped out their respective cancer sticks, stood up, and waved down the transport. It was quite a bit Beefier than the ones they had ridden before. The crew chief had opened the door and waved down at them.

Adam gave a thumbs up, and ropes were deployed from a hatch on the bottom. The crew chief had rappelled down the help. The two took a moment to admire her form.

"You boys need a hand?" She asked.

They nodded, still trying to form words. They really had no reason to make a flightsuit that formfitting.

"Could always use a local expert." Replied Adam.

They started to wrap the tow ropes around the BTR, if one watched closely, Jonathan's eyes never left the the crew chief for more then a few seconds. Within a few minutes they had the BTR correctly roped and ready for transport to the hanger. The three hopped on top of the APC and held on to the ropes.

She yelled up towards aircraft "Spin them up Ben!"

The pitch of the engines changed and the force of the downdraft increased as they lifted off the ground.

"So You two those aliens everyone's talking about."

"Eh if that's what they want to call us. We're just four soldiers who want to help." Said Adam.

She nodded "Didn't peg you for the crazies half the school thinks you are. What the hell is this thing, a tank?" She tapped her foot against the hull.

"Kinda, it's ahead our time. You'd have to ask Sergeant Krauss, he'd be able to tell you." Stated Adam. The three felt the APC under them lurch as the bullhead declarate.

"This is our stop. if you have any more tanks ya need moved, don't hesitate to call. My callsign is Foehammer."

The three started to unravel the rope around the BTR. After a minute of work, the BTR was free of its bindings.

"Will take it from here, See you around Foehammer." Said Jonathan.

Foehammer grabbed onto the tow rope and yanked twice. With a weir she rose up into the belly of the transport and it flew away.

"Well she was certainly a looker private." Said Adam.

He said "Hun? Oh yeah, definitely a nice one…"

Adam grabbed him by the arm and led him over to the door controls.

"Come along now lover boy you'll get your chance soon."

Jonathan's face flushed slightly. "What! Sir I don't have any feeling for her."

Adam finished getting the door open and unlocked and stepped inside.

"Nothing wrong about liking a pretty lady private. Now let's get this scrap moved in here. Now if I remember, there should be a pair of forklifts over here." He walked over to a pair of doors that would belong to a freight elevator. Two four digit codes later they opened to reveal two shiny forklifts. They maneuvered them to pick up to APC along the middle.

"Alright, on three raise your forks. Ready? One, two, three raise."

In unison the two raised the forks lifting the BTR into the air. The slowly pulled back into the hanger and set it down near the side. Checking their work, the saw the Humvee still had enough room to exit.

"Ok we're done here. Seal it up and let's get to class." Ordered Adam

The machine gunner walked out and set the doors to close and lock.

"Good on this end sir."

"Alright close em."

With a ratcheting sound the door began to close. They slammed together with a massive clang of hardened steel.

"Alright we missed Ports lecture from hell so that gives us twenty minutes to get to Professor Myrtle's algebra." Glanced at the scroll he held." And it will take us thirty to get there. double time it private." The two sprinted off.

The day passed and by morning Wilhelm had been cleared from the infirmary, Krauss was still in his power nap of healing. The three had been "cleared" by their robot to sort out the BTR's internal storage. Apparently whoever those people were had used it as a mobile base. A lot of research notes were collected for Krauss to later decipher. Turns out the BTR's axles were busted but repairable. The gun was completely useless. They had no ammunition, and the barrel was bent at a 45 degree angle. Over all the vehicle was salvageable. They had one major problem. They had 50 gallons of gas at max between the two vehicles. Krauss had been doing some research on trying to use Dust for the engines and was coming close to Bearing fruit before his injury.

Five days passed before Krauss woke up from his coma. Within an hour of receiving the news he was abducted by Airborne to help on the Conversion project for the two engines and notes. Around noon Airborne noticed that their "Radar" had picked up a trio of massive contacts. They tore the Javelin that the BTR had been carring from its rack and rushed outside. They quickly set up the launcher. Krauss aimed the launcher in the direction of the radar returns

"Ok they should be comeing out of the clouds right about...Oh fuck." The contacts were three massive airships close to a kilometer long. Krauss lowered the launcher from his shoulder.

"We're gonna need a bigger gun." Whispered Krauss.

"If I hit the bridge…."

"you'd just piss it off, stand down Sergeant. Go get geared up now, We need to have some words with the headmaster." The three sprinted to their room to grab armor and weapons. In five minutes, they were on their way to the headmasters office. As they ran past the landing fields, they saw the ship's slowly coming in to dock and unload.

"Shit! Double time it Airborne we are not equipped to deal with this."

They started sprinting, the belts draped around the machine gunners jingled as they moved. They got a lot of odd looks from passing students. Airborne was infamous for the bizarre actions the Fireteam would undertake, but sprinting through a crowded area in full kit during the middle of the day was a little above their normal routine.

After a good three minutes of continued running they made it to the elevator. With a soft ding the doors opened. They piled in and hit the up button. The MG men collapsed against the sides in an effort to catch their breath. Adam kept his Thomson half raised at the door. Krauss was checking his magazines.

"Five seconds." Whispered Adam. Rifles snapped to shoulders. With a ding the doors opened to reveal a very startled Goodwitch.

"Safe it." The assorted weapons were lowered and safeties were flicked on

"I apologize miss we need to speak." Adam didn't get to finish his sentence.

"Ozpin who are these men!" They all heard the distinctive click of a pistol hammer.

Weapons were back in a flash as safeties click to kill.

"General, Lieutenant stand down." Said Ozpin.

Goodwitch had stepped to the side to reveal the repetitive opposition.

 **Ironwood**.

A man who reaches the rank of General is required to have seen a lot of strange things. This probably topped anything i have seen before and would remain there for a few months. Inside the elevator stood four massive men. Two held belt feed machine guns, they oddly had two very different uniforms. One was in a dark green, the other was in a collared grey one with a twin S Rune on his collar tabs. The other two were a bit more odd. The one was in a grey green digital camo and held a wood furnished rifle with a thin scope, his helmet was completely different and held a strange lens above his brow. The Lieutenant, if they used the same markings, was dressed in the same uniform as one of the machine gunners. he held what looked to be a SMG. His helmet had a single white bar on it. The strange thing was their Armor. Only one had matching camo on it and it belong to the sniper, as if they had scavenged it.

"Ozpin who are these men." I asked. I still had my magnum at half cock. There was no way I trusted these men, the air of dispare they gave off was beyond unnerving.

"General please calm yourself. These are my students." Replied Ozpin. "They are rightly paranoid, and probably thought you were invading the school."

The one in camo gave a nervous laugh. "Fireteam Airborne is training to be hunters. If they ever showed up to class that is."

"Sir we do have the drone." Said Adam.

"Hijacking a AK-130 to walk your classes with a scroll taped to its face is not attending them. I expect your Fireteam to start attending them in person starting Monday . Am I understood Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir. If I may?"

Ozpin nodded. "Go on."

"We've compiled a list of materials that we would need to get both the Humvee and BTR to working order. The BTR will stay disarmed though, it's gun was bent and didn't have any ammo." He handed Ozpin a notebook.

Ozpin opened it looked at the first page and promptly closed it.

"I was under the impression that your jeep was still in working order?"

"Mechanically yes. But it's armor is kinda shredded. I would like to replace as much of it as I could."

"Alright I will give you a budget to get this done. Have one of the lift crews get both of these vehicles to Lopez's repair shop in southern Vale. You are dismissed."

The four saluted and marched back to the elevator's door. It opened and they climbed inside.

"I expect you to be back before curfew."

"Aye Sir."

The doors closed

I said. "Oz who were those people? That one in grey has a shroud of death on him, the all do."

My friend stood an placed a hand on my shoulder. "You remember the fail safe we installed in the vault right?" I nodded. " Those men are the ones who donated the device. They come from a much crueler world, Mr. Krauss comes from a world on the brink of total war for a third time. The others are from the end of a Second World War and opposing sides none the less."

I was about to respond when my scroll went off. It was the captain of the Resident Dawn.

"We will have to discuss this later Oz. I have to return to my ship." Those men were dangerous. Ozpin was playing with fire again I prayed he wouldn't get burned.


	16. Daylight drive

**AN: Ok its kinds late and by the time this gose through it will be Thursday, but belive me this was finished on Wednesday. Ok yeah this is pathetic and not even close to a full chapter. I apologize Dark Souls has been sucking all the time I have into beating it. So yeah. Uh this will probably get a redo by Friday making it a full chapter worthy of a read. Oh before I go that react fic will probably get up around Friday too. Currently it's the Prepare to Cry trailer followed by the Legend of Artorias. After that it might be some Cheeki Breeki goodness courtesy of comrade Boris. Now onwards to the "story". Not a full update, read lower AN for explaintions.**

Airborne looked at each other in the trip back down the elevator.

Jonathan asked "So who's up for completely forgetting that we just did that."

The three others nodded.

"Sir how are we going to get the BTR to Vale? While the Humvee can tow a lot of things a broken 15 ton APC is a bit beyond what it's rated for." Said Krauss.

"We could ask Jonathan's Girlfriend." Said Adam with a shit eating grin plastered across his face.

The private angrily retorted. "I talked to her ONCE after that!"

The Germans of the team looked to each other. "Well who caught the eye of our little battle brother?" Said Wilhelm

"God dammit I fucking talked to her once! How does that make her my girlfriend!"

"Relax man but seriously call her up again we need to move these vehicles quickly." Krauss looked at his watch "it's 1038 now. If we hurry, I can drive the Humvee down to the city with a partner, the other two can escort the BTR."

Adam nodded." Sounds good to me. I'll accompany you with the car." He pointed to Jonathan and Wilhelm. "You two are in charge of getting the BTR to the shop understood?"

The two saluted. "Sir!/Jowhol"

"Get going you're with me."

The group split up. One heading to the hanger, the other to the air traffic control building. the Humvee crew reached their destination in a few minutes. Krauss jumped into the driver's seat. Adam followed suit and clambered into the turret mouth and sat in the sling. He rapped his fist twice on the roof.

With a low growl the engine sparked to life. Krauss pulled out and onto the Tarmac. Adam had a map out on his scroll and began issuing directions. Within a few minutes they had navigated through the twisting roads of Beacon's campus and found their way onto a highway into the city.

They got almost three miles before a cop car pulled them over.

"Shit pull us over sergeant." Krauss steered them over to the side of the road. Adam clambered out of the turret and onto the roof and jumped off the edge to talk to the officer who had stopped them. He asked. "Is there a problem sir?" As He adjusted his rifle's sling slightly.

The poor cop really didn't know what to. These two were obviously military, but he had never seen anything quite like this. The car, if it could be called that, was a squat boxy affair. It was massive and the heavily armored. Though it obviously hadn't been enough because a massive pair of holes went straight through it blowing most of the passenger side windshield out and putting two large holes out the back. Smaller dents and holes covered the rest of the car.

The man who had exited was huge, over seven feet if he was to guess. He was carrying a rifle that was slung across his back. A pistol was holstered on his thigh. The majority of him was covered in thick looking armor with pouches attached all over. This was probably going to get messy if he screwed up.

"Son you're driving a tank down the middle of a highway what do you think."

Adam dug into a bag on his chest plate. "I have permission to take this car to get repaired in southern vale." Finally getting what he looking for he handed a folded piece of paper along with his US passport to the man.

"Son you think this is funny? If you going to make a fake ID at least make one for a kingdom that exists."

Adam growled. "That is my country, i wouldn't be bearing its flag on my uniform now if it wasn't. That letter should have all the information you'll need."

The cop unfolded the letter and started to read it. As he read he got quite pale.

"Lieutenant I am so sorry. Please don't tell the headmaster sir."

"It's fine officer. If you don't mind I need to be going." Adam collected the documents and walked back to the car.

He opened the door and climbed back inside the Humvee.

A second later the Lieutenant's head popped out of the turret ring.

"Let's get moving Sergeant." The engine turned over and they speed off down the highway. Leaving a very confused patrol officer behind.

A ways back on the highway a pair of students zipped through traffic on a mission. While not from God, it was important to them.

"Could you go just a bit slower." Asked a blue haired boy clinging desperately to the back of the driver of the yellow bike. He was accustomed to rapid trips through the desert in his team's buggy. But that was in the desert with wide open dunes, not these cramped city streets with cars coming way too close for comfort.

"Ah but where's the fun in that Neptune!" Answered Yang. She guided Her bike ,Bumblebee, through a particularly tight gap. Within seconds a car sped past the bike by a margin that many wouldn't want to remember

"Yang just keep your eyes on the road!" Yelled Neptune.

The two continued to weave in and out of traffic.

"Uh Yang what's that?" Asked Neptune as he pointed towards a car that they were fast approaching.

Yang followed his gaze and swore under her breath. What the hell were they doing in Vale?

"That would be Fireteam Airborne, our resident psychopaths and murderers."

If Neptune had been drinking something he probably would have done a pretty impressive spit take.

"Wait your What?!"

"They're Soldiers and they tend to make it abundantly clear when they fight."

At that point the Humvee took a turn on the off ramp. Conveniently, it was the same one needed to get to Yang's "friend". Yang decided, in all reality, ago her better judgement to tail the Humvee. They tried to hang back while keeping the vehicle in view but it proved to be more difficult task then the blond had originally thought. The Humvee took just about every side street, almost as if it was trying to lose them. After close to an hour of tailing they found Airborne's destination. Lopez's Auto repair.

Uh are you sure we should be doing this Yang." Asked a nervous Neptune.

The distinctive racking of a rifle bolt was heard. "Do I really need to answer that kid." The two teens turned to reveal a somewhat angry Krauss. His rifle was held across his body. They noticed that he had removed the magazine, so the cocking was probably just a scare tactic.

"A bright yellow bike is not the stealthiest of vehicles Yang. Just don't try anything stupid ok, I'm already injured enough." He replaced the magazine and slung the rifle.

"We were looking for some clues on mmph!" The rest of Neptune's sentence was cut off by Yang's hand.

"I was looking to get a tune up on my bike. What are you doing here."

Whatever Krauss was going to say was cut off when a bullhead roared onto the scene. Beneath it was slung that APC from before. A dozen curses in German were heard from the the swinging mass of Armor. Krauss scratched the back of his head which look a bit strange considering his helmet was still attached to his head.

"Yeah, just some repair work. Hopefully we can get that hunk running. It would be nice to have some armored support"

Neptune didn't really know what to think. Who were these guys they had to be loaded if they could maintain a tank. "Monty. How the hell do you guys afford all this."

"Eh the Humvee over there was issued to my squad before my little incident. And the BTR was 'Scavenged' off the hands of some Russians."

"SARGE SOME SCARY PEOPLE HAVE A TANK!"

Airborne and the two Beacon trainees turned to the entrance. A man in orange/gold coveralls with a welding mask was poking his head around the doorframe. Noticing that there were quite a few people staring at him he ducked back inside. Seconds later they heard something about a shotgun court martial followed by the ever pleasant sound of a racking pump.

"Uh would you be Lopez?" Asked Adam.

A man stepped out of the doorway. He was an odd sight. Probably nearing sixty from almost silver hair. He was dressed in fatigues that were dyed a crimson red. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of golden aviators. The massive shotgun held in his hands was very off putting to Airborne, who unknowingly placed their hands on their sidearms or clicked off safeties.

"What in the Sam Hill is going on here?"

Krauss "discreetly" nudged Adam, by kicking the back of his knee.

"Gah! Ah yes, we need some repair done on our vehicles. I heard you're crew is pretty good at that."

Sarge turned to face the two projects they were giving him. To say he was excited was an understatement. Two of his subordinates came out with lift gear. One was the orange man from before, he was accompanied by a man identical clothing, except his color was maroon. The two began with surprising swiftness hauled the two vehicles inside the shop and closed the doors.

"Ah I think we can fix them. Is there anything else you want done to them?"

"Yes. I will need the gun in the turret of the APC removed and scraped. The Sergeant here had something about upgrading the engines too, but you'll have to talk with him on that. When do you think we can retrieve them?"

Sarge turned around and said. "10"

Adam Noded and turned back to the group. " Alright we got ten hours to."

"9" the group turned back to the repair shop. The Building was now shaking and intense beams of light shot out through the joints of the two doors. "8" Sarge continued the count down till zero as Airborne slowly backed away in fear. "3, 2, 1.5, 1"

With an almost cartoonish Ding the two doors rolled up to revile the two vehicles. They looked like they had just rolled off the factory floor. The Humvee and BTR had been repainted a Olive Drab. The BTR turret was missing its gun and now sported a strange looking weapon in the turret that consisted of several large ribs going up and down the barrel. Judging from the looks, it would probably be just as dangerous to the gunner as the target. "That will be 6,000,000 Len"

Airborne looked at each other. Ozpin had technically given them a blank check with Beacon's name on it but this was kinda insane.

"Did you say Six Million Len?"

"Yep you some kind of blue?"

Ignore the odd color quip, Adam reluctantly dug out the letter.

"Alright there's instruction on your payment in their. As far as i know you'll get the payment by the beginning of the week"

Sarge looked it over his grin only seemed to grow. He muttered something about finally being able to poison grif's meal. Once again the group slowly backed away from the definitely unhinged man. They went to board the the two vehicles when they noticed something. It was dark out. They had left at 10:40AM it had taken them an hour and a half to get down to where they currently. That would put the time close to noon not, as the nearby clock stated, 22:17.

"Did we just time travel?" Asked a stunned Yang.

Krauss simply stared up at the shattered moon and said. "With all the crazy shit your planet has I wouldn't be surprised."

"What do you mean our planet?" Questioned Neptune.

Krauss swore under his breath. ( _Italian) "Uh tell him or just let it pass off as insanity."_

Adam gave a shrug." _Fuck it, don't think he'll snitch about it. But do it away from this place, I don't like these people."_

 _"Wilco."_

Adam clambered up into the Humvee's turret. "Airborne Mount up, Private you're with me. You two take the BTR."

Airborne saluted and coursed "Sir." And dispersed.

 **AN: Christ I'm a fucking asshole arnt I. I really do feel sorry for not getting this up sooner. School just started this week for me and I'm still trying to make heads or tales of my classes, particularly AP computer science. That women has quite literally thrown us to the wolves. Anyways I'll get the next chapter up Friday afternoon along with an update to laptop. Before warned, next chapter is where I put a gun to _cannon's_ head. Things might just change for the better, and some people might know more then they let onto. Ok uh please review so I can try to correct the fuck ups in grammar and plot holes. (I'm keeping the pot holes though, they make a more interesting road.)**


	17. Armor

**AN: Well it's still "after" noon. sorry i'm lazy and started playing Dark Souls again. I did manage to kill my first Lord of Cinder though so i guess that's good. So here's a fight! Along with a drawn out conversation with Atlas military. On a tactical level, Atlas kinda sucks. No tactics besides group up and shoot regardless of effectiveness, no Squad level heavy weapons. e.g. SAWs, Marksman rifles, launchers of any sort. Robots are kinda neat besides the fact they have serious targeting problems, as in can't engage a prone target 5 feet from them. Mechs are impressive but could get Mission killed by punching so a 120mm gun on a MBT would kill it. Airships don't seem to have any point defense or counter measures so a MANPAD could bring one down. Oh the biggest problem? They are ridiculously incompetent. Seriously. Let's see, why didnt they have any patrols looking for large Grimm concentrations that would be preemptively destroyed? Why was there no CAP or CAS support? And chiefly WHY THE FUCK did you not utterly destroy Mt. Glenn or at the very least check to make sure the subways are completely secured? As one interesting Reddit use pointed out, Why don't they just record videos of CAS runs on Grimm or of Grimm being blown to pieces by machine guns etc, show the Grimm as dumb animals instead of killing machines. Ok thats enough ranting, enjoy the chaper and tell me what i screwed up, or if you have any ideas.**

Krauss and Wilhelm climbed inside the BTR and ran through the checks that Krauss knew. They had ¾ of a tank, what looked like a hundred rounds for the new gun, and apparently half a pack of cigarettes. Wilhelm sat down in the turret and popped the hatch. Both he and Krauss took off their bulky infantry helmets and placed the soviet tank ones on in there stead.

"Comms check. Alpha bravo charlie 1 2 3."

"Message received Oberjäger. We'll take the lead. Keep Krauss on the roads. Over and out." Adam's line cut out.

Wilhelm switched over to the internal comms."Krauss you ready?"

The sergeant's response was to ignite the engine. The APC became a lot louder as the cylinders began to pump up and down in their cells.

Wilhelm ordered the tank into gear." Driver, Forward." Below Krauss depressed the accelerator and the tank lurched into motion behind the Humvee. Krauss had elected to raise the shield so he could get a good view. The pair turned out of the driveway and onto the street with a course set for Beacon. They once again prayed they wouldn't get stopped by any passing patrols, but it just wasn't their day.

Near the on ramps for the highway, Atlas had set up a damned checkpoint. As they were pulling up they could see the men manning it scrambling about for weapons.

Wilhelm radioed to humvee. "Sir permission to just bypass this."

A small pop was heard as the Lieutenant gave his reply. "Negative wait it out."

The Humvee pulled up to the checkpoint. Adam leaned to the side of the turret."Guten Nacht Hier."

The poor guards didn't really know what to think."Sir what are you doing?" Asked the one who seemed to be in charge judging from the pistol at his hip.(NCO Have a bayonet as it's too expensive to issue sidearms.) Adam simply reached into his vest.

"Yeah i've got orders to get these" He rapped his fist on the roof." back to Beacon before 23:30, so if you could open this gate here id be thankful."

The sergeant at the gate simply shook his head. "Sir i'm going to have to call this in, you can't just." he was cut off as a sizeable mech chased down two recognizable figures down the middle of the highway. Behind it were Weiss and Ruby. Adam looked down at the troops manning the checkpoint. There was six of them. "Alright we have a hostile robot running down Main Street. You boys better mount up we're going to have a little fight."

Wilhelm opened the hatch on the BTR. "Quickly now, we need to help them." The Atlas troops shrugged. There was a rogue Paladin, a device that was beyond top secret, chasing a pair of trainees down the highway, and a group of soldiers who intended to kill it. They scrambled aboard the strangely spacious vehicle. This thing was well designed, it had three firing ports along the side that had separate viewports to keep exposed to a minimum. The sergeant began radioing the situation to the air wing in his sector.

Roman Torchwick was not in a happy mood. First the general displeasure of working with the White Fang, then those damn kids just had to show up, and now he was being chased by a small armored convoy of a completely unknown design. A burst of heavy machine gun fire rattled the cockpit. That gun packed a mean punch.(Fun fact the M2 was originally designed as an AT gun during WWI.) That tank behind it was even more troublesome. The three shots it had gotten off had pierced straight through the reinforced pylons holding up the highways above. His guns had problems denting that metal. He really hoped Neo was at the extraction point. He forced the mech down as a angry blonde women flew past him on a rope like a yoyo. Bring the mech back up, the tank snapped off a shot. It hit the right shoulder and blew the joint to pieces completely wrecking it. Getting a little pissed he tore the damaged arm off and began to use it as a club. He got a solid blow on the black haired faunus who started this cluster fuck. It sent her flying into the ground. And only served to piss off blondie further. He swung again and connected sending her into a pylon, that should take care of the brat. Unless it didn't.

Oh wonderful she was on fire now, and the other two were shooting blocks of ice everywhere. Triggering the missile pod on his left shoulder he fired off a half dozen rockets to clear the area and to dispatch the girl. He then turned his attention to the tank.

Wait what was that guy on the roof holding?

Torchwitch got his answer in the form of a high speed missile detonating right on the top of his mech. The shaped charge blew through armor and peeled the mech apart like a tin can. Leaving him in the open and exposed. Then six Atlas regulars jumped out of the tank along with two massive men holding rifles. That made 18 people were ready to capture him. While he was quite competent and probably capable of taking any of the three groups individually, combined they would grind his ass into a paste.

Torchwick shakily raised himself to his feet. He could feel his aura was definitely damaged from that missile. Leaning over his cane in a mockery of its correct usage, he took a deep breath to calm his raging heart. "Well shitlords it's been an education." Taking that as her cue, Neo jumped down from her perch and took a bow. "But I've got places to be."

Right before she was able to cast the illusion, a trio of shots rang out. They were louder And sharper they any bullet he had heard before. One knocked his accomplice on her ass from sheer force. The second smacked into her gut, Aura Half Blocked the bullet, managing to shatter the bullet before failing completely, leaving the shards to tear her defenseless skin. leaving the final bullet to slide in just below her left lung. He spun around and spotted the shooter, it was one of the giants from the tank. His massive rifle was smoking gently smoking from the muzzle. Before he could do anything he fired again. Two rounds screamed down range. Before he could even register the rounds had left the barrel they smacked into his thigh and stomach. His Aura stopped the first round but failed to hold against the second.

He fell to the ground clutching his leg wound. He desperately crawled next to his henchgirl. Reaching her he shook her shoulder

"Neo are you alright. Answer me!" Neo feebly turned her head to Torchwick's cry. Her eyes were wide in fear.

Within seconds he was surrounded. Someone kicked him onto his back. He found himself staring down the barrel of a rifle."Stay the fuck down." It was the one who had taken the shots. His voice was, too low, it sounded like the plutonic grumble of a dying star. He turned his head to Neo. Another one of those giants was tending to her along with one of the Atlas soldiers.. "Please save her…" For the first time in a while Roman Torchwick was scared. These men had put him down with ruthless efficiency. Those had been kill shots at Neo, he hadn't been given the same courtesy for some reason.

Serval Atlas gunships arrived on scene. Mechs, troops and even Ironwood himself spilled out. Upon viewing the scene. Airborne was still sweeping the area weapons out and hunting, the tallest was pinning a wounded Torchwick with a rifle pointed at his head. Besides one, who he presumed had medical training, his troops milled about like a bunch of thugs. And the icing on the cake, RWBY a freshman team from. Beacon who somehow again manged to get involved.

"What the FUCK are you doing here!" Shouted the General.

Adam and Wilhelm stepped away from the two criminals along with the Atlas troops.

"Well we were returning a convoy to Beacon before your checkpoint stopped us." Said Adam

"Helping a team of Huntresses capture a known pair of criminals, Sir." Chimed Wilhelm.

The general noticed that Torchwick and his accomplice had been wounded possibly fatally in the latter's case. "What the hell did you do?"

Adam filled him in. "They were going to escape and obviously weren't listening to the commands to halt. Sergeant Krauss took the shot and incapacitated them. Though the way the girl is going, we might need a bag."

Ironwood was not happy. What would have been a clean capture was now a cluster fuck for the medics. "You shot them?"

"Yep they were probably going to escape. The sergeant might have gone a bit overkill with the Javelin."

"You used a missile launcher on a single person."

"He was in that fragile robot thing."

"You are absurdly lucky you're under Ozpin's jurisdiction Lieutenant or I would have you shot."

Adam muttered "Wow, good to know the soviets found their way here too." Clearing his throat, Adam said."I will be in trusting the transport duties to you then _General."_

Adam spun around and began to walk away. Wilhelm fell in step behind him.

"Sergeant please remove your boot." Krauss took his boot off Torchwick's chest. "Get back in the BTR with Wilhelm, wait for us."

Krauss gave a Salut. "Aye sir." And ran off to prep the APC with Wilhelm tailing behind.

"Jonathan, will she make it?"

"I don't know. Krauss got her with some fragments and a clean shot below her lung. She's stable but you needs a real doctor, not a half trained medic and a small handful of aura. I'd give her 2 hours max."

Adam nodded solemnly. "Alright make sure Atlas understands. I'm really surprised Krauss didn't take the kill considering what he told us. Anyways were leaving pack it up and prep the Humvee."

"Alright sir." He moved to get one of the Atlas troops.

"Uh Mr. McCarthy?"

Adam spun around to find Ruby standing behind him with the rest of her team approaching with two other students. "Could we get a ride? Yang is the only one with a bike."

Adam sighed. "Alright get in the BTR, we'll drive you back. The sergeant will tell you where to sit." As the teens walked past, Adam grabbed a hold of Sun and Neptune. "You boys get to ride with me." Sun and Neptune gave each other the "telepathic conversation of immense importance" look. "Ok Mr. …"

"Lieutenant McCarthy. Come along now." Adam walked off with the two in tow.

"Actual to all signals, green light." Within the BTR the girls felt the APC's Engine turn over and start with a throaty roar. "Follow me Krauss, you are not ramming civilians understood."

Krauss leaned forward "Yeah yeah, just remember I'm as blind as bat here."

"Understood 3 ETA is 00:00. Now shut up I want to have my smoke in peace. Actual out.


	18. Should not have said that

**AN: Well i cant keep updates on time aparently. Uh this quite a bit shorter then i wanted but writer's block is a bitch. This chapter is mostly filler, with a pretty major plot point near the end. I should have a chaper for Laptop done soon, it may be up latter today. Thats all i can think of for now, tell me what i fucked up or any ideas or coments on the story. Enjoy.** As the pair of transports meandered their way back to Beacon, the BTR started to fall behind. Krauss had gone as far as to lower the shields and was actually shaking slightly, as if expecting I comeing fire. The BTR slowed even further to a combat pace. Krauss was now nervously checking viewports and muttering words under his breath.

Ruby noticed this and asked. "Hey Krauss you alright?" The man in question ignored her.

"Wilhelm I think something's wrong with Krauss."

The rest of the vehicle's passengers noticed. Wilhelm slid out of the turret. And radioed ahead. "Hey Adam pull over I need to check something with the engine."

He got a garbled reply that sounded a lot like 'suck a cock'.

Wilhelm shrugged and shuffled towards the driver's seat. "Krauss you ok?" He didn't respond. Wilhelm muttered a creative curse in German and tapped him on the shoulder. "Snap out of it, you're not in Afghanistan sergeant." Once again it sparked no reaction. Wilhelm sighed, then punched him across the jaw with enough force to slam him into the hull. The girls in back all jumped at the clang Krauss make as he impacted."Wake up Asshole."

"Mother fucker!" Snapped Krauss as he nursed his head.

"Finally! Flashback?"

"Yeah."

"Krauss how much sleep have you had these past three days."

"6 hours" he whispered.

Wilhelm jerked his head to the rear of the vehicle. "Damn it man, you know this is what will happen. I'll take over."

Krauss nodded. "Alright, uh Gas is far right brake is next to it and the two on the left are clutch." (No idea if that's the layout) The two switched places. And continued the drive, catching up with the rest of the group.

It was close to two in the morning when they finally pulled into Beacon. Adam and his accompanying squad were out and waiting for them. Everyone piled out of the BTR and onto the Concrete in Airborne's hanger.

"Alright you six get to bed, we'll handle the fallout from this shit."

"Yes indeed you will."

"They're standing right behind us aren't they." Said Adam.

"Yes." Answered Ruby.

Airborne as a whole did a one-eighty to face Ozpin and his ever present assistant.

"Fireteam Airborne I distinctly remember telling you to come back before curfew. Not three hours after."

Adam stepped forward "We have a few things to discuss. As for an excuse you can contact him."

Ozpin Nodded. "Ahh yes I remember James mentioning that he apprehended Torchwick and his compliance ."

"Well RWBY did basically hand them to him on a platter."

Ozpin narrowed his eyes. "I highly doubt that any of team RWBY would nearly kill the two of them." Krauss tried to whistle innocently, but it was kinda hard to when you're wearing a full set of field kit. "Though it appears that both have escaped custody."

"How the fuck did Neo escape I put a round there her lung!"

"Wait who's Neo?" Asked Yang.

Krauss's, along with Airborne's faces, turned to one of horror.

"BLOODY ARROW!" Yelled Adam.

Before anything else could be said, Airborne made a mad dash for cover, and by extension one of the entrances to their tunnel network. Goodwitch was all too used to students running in foolish attempts to escape, and froze the Soldiers mid stride with her semblance.

"Lieutenant I believe I will be having words with your Fireteam."

Ozpin turn to the gathered and very confused teens "And I believe it is far past curfew for you six. Glynda here will insure you don't get lost on the way back."

Airbore reluctantly walked back to the clock tower, but in a burst of movement that surprised the old headmaster, Airborne pulled him into a supply closet. Adam was busy trying to keep the man quiet while Wilhelm and Jonathan were unscrewing a vent cover leaving Krauss to keep watch. The Fireteam completing their tasked pulled a sack from a pocket.

Ozpin's eyebrow raised a bit, a note was shoved in his general direction.

(please note any words exchanged between Airborne and Ozpin are in German, Italian, or Russian.)

"Sorry but can't quite trust anywhere, this CAN NOT be overheard by anything."

Switching to German Ozpin accepted the conditions "Fine, but you better have a beyond good reason for this."

With the sack placed over his head he was rendered blind and slightly deaf. As he was guided through the twisting labyrinth of tunnels that even required a ladder in one spot.

"Ok take it off." The hood was removed and Ozpin blinked at the influx of light. He was standing in a round room roughly fifty Earth feet in diameter. Airborne had to crouch because the ceiling was at five earth feet. Amazingly, they had a small tree growing in the center with duck boarding circling out from its base. Crates were scattered around the room containing Oum knows what. A few fire Dust lanterns were burning to provide lighting and as it seemed in one case cooking. "Sir over here." 

Adam had gestured to haphazard arrangement of boxes that formed a table. Curiously the sergeant was absent.

"W-" Adam immediately silenced Ozpin, he went on to explain what was going on.

"No English. Krauss is getting physical proof and will be back in a few minutes. As for this place, we call it the trunk. When shit goes south, we retreat here and regroup. The tunnel you came in will be collapsed."

Krauss popped out of the wall carrying his laptop. Thinking back Ozpin has seen no exits or entrances to the room. He realized that they had stolen a number of projectors from the CCT and installed them to act as a camouflage. He had underestimated the Fireteam's abilities.

"Ok I'll need you to keep an open mind." Said Krauss. He opened up the laptop and started to go through.

"Oh fuck." Muttered Krauss.

"What?" Asked Wilhelm.

"Someone's been on here recently, and the hard drive has been copied."

"Oh fuck, we might just have caused the world to blowup. What files were accessed?" 

Krauss clicked about a bit more."Uh A pair of videos on Dark Souls lore? The hell is this person."

"Fuck it just pull up the videos and page." Ordered Adam. Krauss resumed his clicking.

"Lieutenant if you could explain what's going on." Said Ozpin.

"Well basicly we know the future for the rest of the school year. Currently there is a pair of attacks coming. One is a few weeks after the school's dance, the other near the end of the Vital tournament. This second attack will practically wipe Vale off the map, along with destroying Atlas's fleet. Krauss if you would."

The man in question spun around the laptop on it was the first episode of RWBY. Before Karuss started he said something. "As a bit of confidence between us. The first words you said to Miss Rose where' 'You have silver eyes.' As you could guess though we are not supposed to be here. So I don't know what will happen. I tried to change a major portion of what would happen by killing Neo, Torchwick's henchgirl.

Ozpin nodded in partial understanding."This Neo girl, what causes her to become such a threat that requires… Neutralization."

"She releases Torchwick after he was imprisoned on Ironwood's flagship. He seizes control through a virus that will be planted in the CCT network within a few weeks, destroys the escort, and turns the robotic troops to the white fang's control. Here watch some of this and tell me just how similar it is." Krauss started up RWBY's first season. The longer the show went on, the more and more troubled Ozpin became. There were a few minute differences probably due to the style and capabilities of this Rooster Teeth studio, but it did match up frighteningly well.

After close to four hours of reviewing this RWBY show, Ozpin was convinced.

"Why have you kept this hidden? This knowledge could quite literally save this planet!"

"Why do you think, This could cause a real panic. Image if team RWBY ended up watching this? That and we had no idea if this would cause a paradox or something."

The five men continued to discuss what they knew, and what they might be able to prevent, fix, or destroy to delay Salam's advance. by the time they had finished it was nearing 13:00.

"Ok we have a rough plan, you need to discuss this with the maiden console."

Ozpin nodded in agreement. Adam pulled out the sack again.

"Really Lieutenant?" 

"It's this or chloroform." 

Ozpin decided not to question where they had gotten a knockout drug and simply held out his hand. He was once again blinded and deafened. Airborne guided him out of the labyrinth. When he was allowed to straighten his back, he heard Adam say. "Blow it." A muffled crump was heard followed by slithering of dirt as the tunnel collapsed.

The men went their separate ways, Ozpin to his tower, and Airborne back to their barracks to get some need sleep.

 **AN: I will have a quick poll up on my Author page. if you could spend two seconds awnsering it i'd be thankful.**


	19. En Gaurd!

**AN: hey guys…. This is what two weeks late now? Yeah sorry to those who decided to stick around for this shit show, I got slammed with school work, an offer for an internship at an I.T. firm(YAY!) and the bullshit that is home coming. Um this chapter is close to double the normal length for your extended pain. We got a funeral and a few short fights and to finish it off Weiss embarrasses herself in front of the school! To all you who voted in the poll thanks, and that will be up till next week when i collect the results, so far it looks a bit crispy. This chapter will probably be updated to add a bit here and there for detail embellishment. Oh Laptop should get a new chapter staring Bloodborne soon. Uh yeah thats it on my end, read it and tell me** **where i fucked it over so i can fix it somewhat.**

 **Bold=Russian**

 _Italics=Itailan_

underline=German

 _ **Any other tounges will be call out close by.**_

The men went their separate ways, Ozpin to his tower, and Airborne back to their barracks to get some need sleep.

It was the following day before anything was decided. Krauss had informed Ozpin of how the tower attack should happen. The night of the dance was about a week away at this point. Honestly, poor Cinder was in for a nasty surprise. The disturbing amount of ideas Krauss had memorized for dangerous objects meant anything from Pulse Jets to 200 watt lasers(that would be 33 million times brighter than the sun.) where a possibility. The Wilhelm had an amazing sense of human nature, able to tell who would walk there, pick up that can, read that book, they were all child's play. Adam's Previous job as a contractor had shown him many, many ways to get a project done. Jonathan had an so far unparalleled ability to hide anything, he could make a machine gun look like a rock even after it started firing. Pull these skills together, and you get a incredible variety of devices that would be very bad to trigger. Anything from air raid sirens to teller mines loaded with mustard gas had been produced. Krauss had even asked permission to drag the flammenwerfer out of storage, something about dramatic irony. Of course Adam, the sane man he is, he denied his request.

It was the three days to the dance Airborne held the funeral for the four Russians and the rest of the soldiers in the forest. In the gathering dusk, they had placed flags of each person's homeland over each casket. Krauss had once again dug out his dress blues, and held M1 and sat a trumpet next to him Jonathan and Wilhelm followed suit. Adam acted as the MC. Ozpin had also attended, he once again held a lit torch. Krauss had managed to decipher a good deal of the notes from the BTR, and it was depressing as hell. He really felt bad for those poor people, at least they could rest now. The honor guard had formed themselves up properly now Adam and Ozpin at the top of the caskets, and Wilhelm, Jonathan, and Krauss at the left.

" **PRESENT ARMS!** " Three Rifles went to shoulders and pointed skyward in precise unison. Ozpin gently placed the torch in the small trail of oil that would light the pyres.

 **"Fire!** " the rifles barked as the flames spread.

 **"Fire!"** The rifles barked again, the flames licked at caskets now as the fabric of the flags burned

 **"Fire!"** The rifles barked their last as the bodies were consumed in the inferno.

 **"Shoulder arms!"**

Krauss placed his rifle down and lifted the trumpet. Taking a large breath he began to mournfully play Taps. The men saluted as the last note faded into the forest below. They stood

"May God have mercy on your souls. _"_ Stated Adam.

Krauss said _**"May you find rest at the Emperor's side."**_ The High gothic was as brutal sounding as it's origins.

"May your spirit find rest in the halls of your forefathers." Muttered Wilhelm his normally harsh sounding German was smooth and flowing.

 **"May you find your place in Oum's great hunt."** Intoned Ozpin, the ancient Valean was thick with unspoken emotions.

 _"Find your rest brothers, it is well earned."_ Said Jonathan, the usually light Italian was heavy with the man's thoughts.

They stood watch at the flames for close to an hour before returning to a separate section of tunnels they sat and drank a few. The room was a hollowed out section below the cliff, They even had a small window looking out over the forest and the stars. They sat around a small fire, a bottle of… Something Krauss had cooked up from they hydraulics of the BTR (forgot if it was the M-60 or the T-72s you could do that with.) and the Remnant equivalent of Jack Daniels was passed around. The older group shared stories about the squads they had been with, Krauss shared what he had learned from the BTR's notes. They were definitely not from the Earth he knew, the vast quantity of mutants and just plain weird shit they made note of made that abundantly clear. This brought up some very, very, bad possibilities. As they sat and drank, they watched the stars pass through the window. At 2230 Ozpin took his leave. By 2300 only Adam was left. Placing the bottle of whiskey back in its crate he looked out side one last time. "Find your peace."

He walked back out to join his men in the barracks.

The next day was uneventful with only a slight hangover from the night. Well until breakfast That is.

"I'm telling you there is a reason why every nation give sabers to officers and NCOs."

"That's simply because it takes less training, anyone can wildly flail a blade about, a skilled fencer could kill you with ease."

Jaune found this the perfect time to open his mouth and put his foot in it. "Or I could simply snap your blade. Both your swords are too flimsy."

Krauss pointed out a very good fact. "Oh so you think you can break my blade kiddo, good luck. While it's nice to stab something, it is also fun to slash them open. A saber is designed with both in mind."

This argument went on for close to ten minutes before Yang butted in.

"Monty! Would you shut up already. If you think you've got a better sword than beat the other in a fight."

And with that comment, Weiss almost immediately challenged the two men to a duel. Now after Cardin's incident, Airborne was still forbidden from sparring with students but since they had forgone the use of firearms, Port let it slide, when he agreed to referee the match.

The terms were simple, the losers had to take either KP duty for the twelve for a week, or they would have to help Krauss in his ongoing translation of the research notes from the BTR. And of course they would have to scream to the entire school at lunch which blade was better.

Krauss had emptied all his MOLLE pouches and detached them from his armor, leaving only his pistol holster on his thigh and a trench knife on his chest.

"Mr. Arc, Sergeant Krauss, the first to land a disabling blow is the winner, Are ye ready?"

Nora stood from her seat in the balcony and yelled down."Kick his ass Jaune!"

"Yeah go get him Jaune." Shouted Ruby, Behind her JNPR and RWBY ,with the exceptions of Jaune and Weiss, were waving little pendants with Jaune's badge on them.

"Don't you fuck up Sergent." Encouraged Wilhelm. "You know how much these kids eat." In true Airborne fashion, Jonathan had produced a full sized American flag and was waving it about while blasting The Star Spangled Banner over a set of speakers to the annoyance of more than a few. Port was completely oblivious.

Krauss drew his sword and held it straight out while placing his free hand over his heart, lightly gripping the knife' sheath. Jaune followed suit with his sword, gripping it tightly in both hands, and letting his shield stay at his side.

"Begain!"

Krauss began a slow circle around Jaune looking for an exploitable hole in his defense. With a surprisingly quick lunge for someone of his size, Krauss stabbed with his saber near Jaune's gut. Jaune parried the blow with a desperate vertical slash. Krauss swore internally. this had pushed his blade past Jaune, but left him well inside his reach and with his sword in a good slashing position. Doing the one thing you're not supposed to do he dropped and rolled to the right, Croa Mors flew an inch above him. Regaining his distance the circling began again. Krauss tried again this time with a double horizontal slash. The first cut went up at a 20 degree angle and nearly caught Jaune in the shoulder the follow up slammed into Jaune's other arm, right into the pauldron.

"Non Lethal!" Called out Port.

Now it was Jaune's turn. While he didn't have the reach or knowledge that Krauss had, he was faster, and a smaller target. Ducking inside Krauss's guard, he aimed a swipe at the Sergeant's legs. Krauss jumped back, but it was slightly late. Croa's tip scraped across his leg armor. Jaune continued the attack, swinging wildly while too close for Krauss to even bring his longer saber to bear, let alone to commit any attacks that would be fatal. Unexpectedly Krauss lashed out with a solid kick catching Jaune in his knee. While his aura stopped it from breaking, it did nothing to dull intense pain from nearly becoming double jointed.

As he fell backwards onto his back, Krauss took aim and went for the kill. A quick slash to his gut and Jaune was out.

"Sergeant Krauss wins! Impressive fighting both of you. You nearly had him Mr. Arc, if the good Sergeant wasn't so adept in his footwork, you would have surely would have won."

The two looked at the scoreboard. Predictable, Krauss's was at zero Aura, but to the surprise of most, Jaune was down by ten percent. To think that a kick and pair of slashes had been enough to take away 10% from Jaune "Aura battery" Arc was a little off putting.

Suddenly the tape that had been playing the star spangled banner switched over to something a bit less appropriate

"AMERICA! FUCK YEAH, COMING TO SAVE THE" *click* Jonathan tried to sink away from the stereo, his face beet red.

"Private, why the hell is merica fuck yeah on that tape?"

"Reasons"

"Don't ever play that unless we're under attack by Fascists or Commies."

"Yes sir."

"Hey uh try track five, should be a bit less…. Explicit. Jaune good fight, if I didn't fight against Trenton so often you probably would have won." (Trenton just keeps swinging, it is very hard not to get backed into a corner and stabbed. Or shot with a poorly padded arrow.) The Sergeant extended a hand down. Jaune clasped it firmly and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet by the bigger man.

Port started preparations for the next "Would Miss Schee come down here."

Weiss stood up and walked down to the area floor.

Weiss smirked "So Sergeant I hope you're good at cleaning dishes."

Krauss raised an eyebrow. "Taunts now ice queen, I never thought you'd sink so low."

"Why does everyone call me that."

Jaune sarcastically said. "Don't worry snow angel, i'll never call you such a cruel name."

Weiss's face grew red with rage, she snarled. "After I'm done with him, I'm going to beat you to a pulp." Jaune promptly hid behind Phyrra.

"Ms. Schee Sergeant remember no semblance or dust use, first to, land a solid killing blow wins. If you would." Port gestured towards the arena.

Weiss stood twenty feet from her opponent. Krauss did the same pointing gesture as before. She took a small bow in response. Then a quickly as she could she tried to rush in and close the gap between them and catch Krauss off guard. Like Jaune, she was much smaller and faster, but she was most likely a better swordsman than Krauss. But there was one problem.

While Myrtenaster was a rapier, and would normally have a long blade, she had shortened it twice. Once because of her merger height. (Rapiers should reach from the ground to the bottom of your sternum, and Weiss is one of the shortest in the show.) and the second time after a particularly annoying fight with a knight droid at home had cut 4 inches off the top. While not good for the blade, it had improved the effects of her dust by a notable margin and she had elected to simply have the break filed into a new tip. This left Krauss with an enormous range advantage. But likely, as demonstrated with Jaune, he was not very capable in extreme close range, relying almost solely on jumping backwards to escape.

To say Krauss was a bit crazy was an understatement. As track five started to play, he began to dance and sing along. Say what you will, Cossack's song made surprisingly good fighting music. As soon as Weiss started her charge, Krauss met it with one of his own. At the last second he dropped below her aim and came thundering up shoulder checked her square in the chest. A wet crack was heard as Weiss was flung back a good meter, and Krauss grabbed his right shoulder. Letting loose a torrent of curses in Russian, he switched his grip and held his saber in his left hand. He left his right to hang limply at his side in a form eerily similar to a certain consumed knight. (A friend of mine did dislocate his shoulder playing hockey from a particularly nasty check into a open door. Aura probably wouldn't do much to cushion the blows for the attacker )

The gasps from the ring side were many and loud.

"Sergeant you appear to be injured would you like to call the."

His reply was a dismissive wave of his arm

Krauss started running at Weiss. Slightly shocked that Krauss would willingly continue to fight Was a bit concerning. The fact that he was imitating Artorias did not help. When she heard the rest of that story OH SHIT. Krauss had launched himself a good seven feet in the air and was thundering down at her, saber poised. Weiss barely jumped out of the way of Krauss's downward strike. Since when could any of Airborne jump like that! She had to roll away from the follow up cut which would have cleaved her legs off.

'Ah… so they got a hold of it. Hopefully they hadn't seen anything too telling, unless of course they had a similar legend here.' Krauss went for a punch and slammed the two sword guards together. The force of the impact knocked her sword arm out to the side. Krauss followed up with a cut that hit right at her elbow. "Non Lethal!" Hollowed Port.

Weiss jumped back and shook her arm to lessen the pain, Krauss could hit quite hard. Deciding she was done with with dealing with the annoyingly unpredictable sergeant, Charging him, she Successfully ducked under his guard, And stabbed upwards. Krauss was definitely fucked at this point. His desperate parry was too late and instead of clearing him it guided the rapier's point into a joint of his armor where it pierced through. The blade went about an inch deep into the man's flesh before it stopped.

"Cyka Blyat!" Weiss hurriedly pulled her sword free, then panicked at the sight of the Crimson tip. Krauss collapsed onto a knee and held a hand over the wound. "Could you get the Private over here, I really don't feel like, walking." Krauss stumbled over to the wall and slumped against it. Jonathan jumped over the railing. Krauss fumbled around for the vest quick release.

"Dammit man, how do you always do this." Jonathan removed Krauss's hands, flipped up the rank tab, and pulled the quick release causing Krauss's vest to fall apart with a series of clunks as the pieces hit the floor.(Yes that is a thing. The US IOTV includes a quick release to separate the pieces of the vest incase of an unexpected swim or medical emergency, you can easily put the pieces back together.) He inspected the wound. Deciding that it was minor enough that he could move him, he said.

"Fuck it I'm taking you to the infirmary. No use wasting medical supplies when you do something stupid."

Jonathan hauled the larger man up and aligned him perpendicular to his body and grasped his injured shoulder in both hands. "I'm going to fix your shoulder, so get." Jonathan Squeezed and popped Krauss's shoulder back into his socket with an audible pop. Everyone around winced in sympathy.

"You son of bitch!"

Jonathan ducked under the wild haymaker.

"Hey it said in the manual you're supposed surprise them hurts less or some shit. Now hold this to and press down on the stab." Jonathan placed a pad of gauze over Krauss's wound which Krauss himself took and pressed down on.

"Alright let's get you moving." Jonathan slung Krauss's good arm behind his neck to help him walk. The two walked out with Krauss cursing everything under the sun.

"Well after that fantastic event, we still have one match left." Port gestured for for Weiss and Jaune to enter the arena.

"Well I think we know how this will end Arc."

"Don't be too get egotistical Ice Queen." Snarked Jaune.

"Oh five syllables, you're improving."

"That's it!"

Goaded into attacking Jaune charged with surprisingly speed his sword ready for a horizontal slash at chest height. Weiss smirked and moved to party the predictable strike. Only she had grossly underestimated the force Jaune had but behind the strike. The impact forced her rapier into her torso and she pushed back a good inch. The left hook that followed the punishing blow was completely unexpected and hit her square in the side. She doubled over from the sudden force and just barely managed to drop out of the way from the cut that would have ended the match. Jaune was very differently, using a mix of his and Krauss's styles, it made him beyond frustrating to counter. She had no shield she could relentlessly pummel to tire him, and she couldn't close inside his guard like with Krauss.

Jaune pressed his attack similar to when he had faced Krauss, leaving little opportunity for Weiss to strike out. The Broadsword flashed and nearly took Weiss's head off. She kept backing away in an attempt to break free from the knight's assault. She was getting slightly worried. Jaune was normally very defensive, and on the rare chance he did go on the offensive, it was always disabling strike, as if he was afraid to hurt you. Now If one of blizzard of strikes were to land and she didn't have Aura, it would be undoubtedly painful and lethal.

Jaune kept his face neutral, not wanting Weiss to see just how nervous he was or more importantly, how close he was to his goal, of getting her against a wall. A final slash had pushed her against the arena wall.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. With a slight jump she pushed off the wall and flung herself with a bit of reckless at Jaune, Rapier poised to spear him through the chest. Just where Jaune wanted her. As she flew towards him, she no longer had the option to change direction. Jaune dropped to a knee and trust upwards with the tip of Croa Mora. The old relic punched up and hit Weiss just below the neck, which was thankfully blocked by her aura.

"Arc Wins."

The room went silent.

Weiss was too shocked to land on her feet and instead tumbled and rolled to a stop on the floor. She sat up, her face an expressionless mask. She really could not understand it, she had beaten Krauss, the better of the two, how had she lost to the Jaune! The weakest of them all.

"Weiss. Are you ok?" she shook her head to clear the fog. Looking up Jaune was holding a hand out. With a slight sigh, she decided not to be petty and took the help. Jaune hauled her up.

"I'm fine Jaune. That… That was a good match, Phyrra has trained you well." Admitted Weiss. "Though you will have to face the Sergeant again."

"Oh that is not going to be fun"

"Ha, he is a challenging opponent, I wish you luck."

It was at that moment they heard singing.  
"He counted long, he counted loud, he waited for the shock.

He felt the wind, he felt the cold, he felt the awful drop.

The silk from his reserve spilled out and wrapped around his legs.

And he ain't gonna jump no more.

Gory, gory, what a hell of way to die.

Gory, gory, what a hell of way to die.

Gory, gory, what a hell of way to die.

He ain't gonna jump no more."

(Blood Upon The Risers. Little song by the US airborne about when that chute doesn't deploy.)

Everyone in that arena turned their heads to find Krauss and Jonathan back at the entrance.

"What?" Asked Krauss.

"What were you two singing! It sounded like a pig dying." Shouted Weiss.

"Chill ice queen, it's meant to be heard inside a drop plane and sung by 40+ people. It ain't opera. So who won?"

Port, by this point, had walked over to them."The winner of the previous match was Mr. Arc."

Krauss looked at Jaune in surprise. "Well nice job kiddo." Krauss stuck out a hand to shake. "I guess that mean's we need a rematch."

"Well yes you would, after you're healed that is." Explained Port.

"Heh, I'm good here, let's go!" Said Krauss as he went for his sword. Jonathan thankfully stopped him.

"Moron! You can't fight now. You just got stitched up."

"Oh." Krauss deflated slightly. "Well in this case, I will surrender. You win my friend." Krauss took a bow folding his arm and sticking his leg out behind him." Ow." He quickly straightened back up and grasped his side. "Damn Ice Queen you really know how to hurt a man. Anyways I think I have an announcement to make a lunch."

Weiss was well, a little pissed was not quite justice to what she was feeling.

"You're going to give up!" She shrieked. "You're just favoriting him!"

"Kid, I barely beat him the first time, and that was useing a few dirty and deadly tricks. In my opinion he is a better swordsman than I or ,as recently proven, you. Thus I concede the match in his favor."

"But."

Port took charge. "Ms. Schee, The good Sergeant has the opportunity to forfeit the same as you or Mr. Arc." While you couldn't see it behind his mustache, Port was grinning. "Now I believe you have two hours till you embarrass your selves at lunch." He gave a small bow. "Good day Sirs, Ma'ams."

"Wow Jaune you were all like kapow, swish." Ruby mimicked Jaune's strikes with her arms. "Oh and Weiss you were a rocket! Did you cheat and use aura!"

Two hours later as lunch began to pick up, Krauss decided to uphold part one of the duel. Dragging Weiss behind him he stepped up on a table. Weiss had narrowly avoided joining him.

A few eyes wandered from conversions at the man's actions.

"AAAATTENTION BEACAAAN!" Now that got everyone's attention.

"Down in front!" Shouted a student near the back.

"Mne Pohui suka." (R. I don't give a fuck bitch.) Krauss waved his hand dismissively in said students direction before continuing on. "Any way. Due to a stupid series of decisions and a painful duel with Arc and Schee, I am obligated to say the LONGSWORDs are superior to Sabers. Oh Yeah, Vomit boy and Ice Queen are better swordsman-woman than me. Now, with that out of The way i'm gonna get a pizza." Krauss jumped off the table. "Ice queen. You're up."

The mess hall turned to face her. Weiss was red faced in embarrassment and in no small part anger.

Krauss tried to encourage her. "Come on Weiss, it ain't going to kill you.

She stepped up onto the table

"Eh'm. Like Sergeant Krauss said, I must declare that a Longsword is superior to a Rapier. And that I won a duel against the Sergeant, but lost to Jaune Arc."

She quickly dashed back to her team's table as the lunchroom exploded in chatter. Jaune Arc, who could barely hold his own against a beowulf, had beaten not only the terrifying Sergeant from Airborne, but Weiss mother-fucking Schee. One of the best fighters in the whole school too? The rumor mill would be running wild in an hour. Did she throw the match? What was this duel even over? Could Arc have won a date with her over the Sergeant? (oh you bet im going to keep that running.)


	20. Coughs in Spanish

**AN: Uh hello?**

 ***crowd throws rotten fruits***

 **Ok damn it I know I'm really late of this one, October was just a bad month for me. So here we get to explore the wonder that is chemical weapons! Oh a side note, this marks the one year anniversary of me starting this fic. This started off as something to take my mind off my grandmother's decline and death and I didn't really think of turning this into something readable(which it still isn't really). And of course GO CUBS GO! GO CUBS GO! Damn does it feel good here in Chicago. Half the school is missing to go see the parade and shit so yeah. And that's all for now, I really had a hard time finding a spot to close this chapter, next week (hopefully) you kiddies will get the Lt.'s side of things. So of course tell me what I fucked up and any ideas you have for this.**

Away from the usually noisy happenings of beacon a plan was being hatched. Gathered in a dorm room, the information that could change a world was being shared.

"So what did you find?"

The reply came from a man dressed in black and silver, with the fitting name of Mercury, sprawled out on the floor. "Well first off, let me tell you these guys are FUCKING TERRIFYING. I managed to sneak into their Barracks and they were making poison gas!"

(Yes I do know how to make chlorine and mustard gas along with napalm and other such things. Yes I can still take a plane.)

Poison gases are three things to Remnant ; Illegal, deadly, and despised. It was viewed with disdain due to its unique abilities to bypass Aura and directly affect a target. To make matters worse, it was practically useless against Grimm. And so almost days after the end of the Great War the use, position, and development was declared a serious crime. Capital even in some areas.

"And He is okay with this?" Asked Cinder. While nobody truly followed the rules in this little war of shadows, including Chemical weapons was far beyond what even the Queen was willing to do.

"I don't think he even knows, of course that's not all."

"What? What could possibly be worse?"

"Their Auras. Their diseased. They are ,grantedly, absurdly weak, but they feel like… there. It's just wrong."

Cinder frowned at the lack of explanation. "Care to say something useful Mercury?"

"They all carry a shroud of despair. It's incredibly hard to stay civil near them, it's like you just want to punch them in the face or cower in a corner. It's especially strong on their second in command."

"Emerald, what do you have to say?"

Her other minion started her report. "I agree fully with Mercury for once. Airborne is just insane, they talk in compleatly unknow tongues, claim to be a 'fireteam' , and willfully disregard any rules set down for them. apparently they aren't that discriminating because William nearly blew that Winchester boy's balls off when he was bullying some fannus." She sighed. "I also found out why they are prohibited from sparring with the other students."

"Really, What did they do to cause that?"

"In the Lieutenant's first match, he nearly killed a student with a three round burst from a pistol. Of course after this the entire team took an extended hike in the woods afterwards. I couldn't get any info on that. But it had half the school,in an uproar. Though they do seem to hold a bit of resentment towards each other. I got a recording of one of their sparring matches."

"So we know even less of their capabilities, and that they are willing to break any rule to accomplish their still unknown goals."

The two minions just kinda shrugged. "Figures. You two are to grab three rifles from their armory and get them back here. I will take care of the see-see-tee. (CCT) I will not tolerate failure."

The next five days passed in a flash to almost everyone at school. Krauss did most of the KP duty in a sort of half compromise with the still outraged Weiss so she could still plan the upcoming dance in exchange for helping him with the translations later. Airborne had finished the traps for the CCT's systems floor. Three S-Mines, seven canisters of thermite, a pair of sealed containers containing mustard gas were placed near vents were rigged to go off, and the crowning touch was a 50 pound aircraft bomb wired into one of the counsels. To put it simply stepping in there was a death sentence of painful proportions.

At three days to showtime, Ozpin instructed Krauss to chaperone the dance. To say it was an odd and infuriating request was putting it mildly. A dress uniform that he was "suggested" to wear, would not allow his COMA armor to fit underneath. Hell Krauss still showed up, he just sat in a chair watching. Of course this chair was secured on the outside of the railing running around the second floor.

"Uh Sergeant why are you here?" Krauss carefully turned and saw Jaune of all people behind him.

"You know it's usually the bride who wears the white dress right?"

The Arc chuckled and rubbed the back of his head in a nervous tic. He was indeed wearing a white dress. "Lost a bet, and an Arc never goes back on a promise. And you?"

Krauss smirked." Nice to see some integrity at your age Jaune. As for me, blame Ozpin. I should be running an op right now but instead I'm sitting here." He cracked his neck then suddenly remembered. "Oh yeah, uh don't go do something sexual down there or i'll use the straw." He pointed to the stack of straws he had made into a poking device stretching a good twenty feet long with a thumb tack at the tip. Next to it sat a small pile sticky notes reading "Get a room." and condoms. (Friend of mine works at a theater as an usher, did the same. Minus the sticky notes and condoms or course.)

Jaune blushed but nodded before he walked away.

Krauss did have another agenda running, spotting the trio of evil. So far, to his fear, he could not find any of them. As he was scanning the sea of teens below him he saw the student's reactions to Jaune showing up in a dress. The muffled laughter did nothing to faze him as he walked up to Phyrra. Krauss had to hand it to the kid, Jaune really knew how to dance along with his team. After a pretty good performance from the teens, the dance was rudely interrupted by a burst of light before a massive shock wave shook the building. Predictively the students below started to panick. Krauss pulled his radio out to hear Adam address the rest of the fire team. "Actual to All signals, Battersnatch, I repeat Battersnatch. You have green light."

Krauss reported back. "Charlie squad complies."

Sighing he dropped down from his perch and landed with a thud on the floor below. Dodging the panicking students, He walked over to a wall and wiped his hand on a panel that, to the surprise of those who noticed, slide open to show a FG-42, a gas mask, a harness for six magazines, and a pair of potato masher grenades.

"Krauss! Whats going on, the see-see-tee(CCT) just exploded!" yelled Yang as she marched up to the sergeant with Blake right behind her.

"It means the traps been sprung, I need to get there" Krauss was unable to finish his sentence due to the distinctive wail of an air raid siren sounding "oh what the fuck."

Yang shoved the now armed man against the wall. "What the hell is going on!"

Krauss gently pushed the enraged blond away and grabbed his radio. "Actual, what happened!"

"Someone's raiding our armory! The three of us will take care of it! You get to the see-see-tee and kill that bitch now."

"Wilco." Krauss turned to the two girls "You two need to get everyone away from the see-see-tee and get Ozpin over here." He pulled the harness on and stuck the pair of grenades in his belt. Removing his garrison cap and placing the mask on top of his head, he gestured for the two girls to hurry. Yang charged off to complete the task he had given her, but Blake stayed behind and pulled out her scroll. Krauss had run ahead now rifle up and hunting. He heard the telltale scream of a rocket. Thinking it was an RPG he hit the deck and assumed the "incoming" pose. Relaxed, ears covered, mouth open, down low.(Relaxed muscles lets the shock travel through easier, protect ears, keep teeth from shattering from pressure, shrapnel.) To his surprise when he didn't hear an explosion he looked up to see Blake pulling Gamble Shroud out of her locker. He quickly stood up and asked in shock. "What are you doing! You have to get out of here."

She smirked . "Making sure you don't die and getting a foot into whatever the hell you're doing."

Krauss resisted the urge to shoot himself. "Can Arua protect against poison gas?"

"No. wait what?"

"That room is going to be filled with mustard gas and burning thermite, it will end your career as a huntress if it gets to you."

"I don't care."

"Fine don't slow down."

The two resumed their run. Krauss constantly checking shadows, the flashlight taped to the muzzle revealed nothing thankfully.

"Sergeant look." Blake pointed ahead. Following her line of sight he saw a opened rocket locker. They both sprinted to it there was a box of ammo sitting in the bottom. Krauss picked one up and looked over its features. Probably remnant fifty cal, rimmed, and silver and black in color. "Is this who's I think it is?" Instead of confirming his analize , Blake called Krauss over. "Sergeant, I think he's dead." Krauss walked over to the bush Blake was standing over. Behind it was a guard splayed out on his back. His yellow/white armor signifying his standing with Atlas. Krauss gently lifted him and felt his neck pivot. It was far to loose. "Yeah, He's gone." Krauss laid him back down and took his helmet, and placed it on his head. he stood up, ran up to the main entrance to the tower and called a halt. He fully seated the gas mask on his face now. Someone was going to eat twenty rounds of 8mm very soon.

Cinder was trying to collect her bearings. The insistent ringing him her her ears was not helping. That bomb should have killed her outright. Thankfully the blast had pushed her out of the way of the blizzard of shrapnel from those jumping mines. As she pushed herself to her knees, a second bang sounded and the Air seemed to ignite in a fury of burning thermite. Cowering from the burning metal shavings under a ruined terminal, she waited for the fire to subside. It took three minutes for the last of the incendiaries to burn out. The dun smoke filled the room making speech and vision hard

"Neo! Neo! Are you still alive?" Hissed Cinder. Her next sentence came out in a series of hacking cough as she sucked a lung full of smoke and trace amounts of mustard gas.

The telltale pink and brown hair of Torchwick assassin popped up near the door. She was terrified. The killer's eyes were wide and looking all over the place. She was bleeding from a wound to the arm, probably from one of those jumping mines. They jumped up quite a bit further then Cinder remembered, exploding almost at chest or head height for her and Neo respectively. A burning sensation pricked at her exposed skin and eyes. She could see slight blister forming on her skin. THE GAS! Those bastards had placed the gas with the rest of the traps here! "NEO we need run NOW! The ice cream assassin looked up and shakily stumbled over to the false maiden. Cinder grasped the choking women's arm and flared her semblance.(Really not sure if what she's been using are "Maiden Powers" or semblance so just roll with it.) with a flash of flame the two found themselves on the outside of the CCT. 14 floors in the air. The clear air had never tasted so good to either woman. The two were quickly blinked back to the side of the massive antenna. Where they clung like a hound dog on a porkchop.

With a hefty kick Krauss bashed the door open to his surprise he found Ruby, scythe drawn, in the middle of the lobby.

"Ruby?" His voice was muffled by the gas mask but clear enough for Ruby to understand. "What in the Emperor's name are you doing here?"

"I saw the tower explode and I thought someone might be hurt then I saw the men outside."

"Stay with Blake, the two of you are not to move up till I tell you. This shit will be a beyond painful death." Krauss checked the little green stick near the bayonet lug. In the presence of Mustard, or other toxic gases, it would turn a dark red telling you the put that mask on. It was a clean pale green, no red. Rifle up he moved to the stairs. "Check your corners, i'm a glass cannon here, we can't afford any surprises."

"Krauss why are taking the stairs? Wouldn't the elevator be faster?" asked Ruby

"Two reasons." Krauss trained his muzzle on a door marked 3 as the group passed it. "It's too noisy, and it no longer functions."

He now switched to the door marked 4 on the floor above them. Blake Narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean 'it no longer functions' you didn't destroy all the elevators did you?"

"Nope." came the quick reply.

"Thank oum, if"

"Just the breaks."

The two students stopped and looked to gun wielding man. "So if i wear to say use one of these."

Krauss shrugged. "You'd fall to your death, or maybe get cut in half by the roof smashing into you. What? We were through. That bit"The sergeant caught himself before he fully voiced his error." who ever tried this is not escaping." He checked the marker again. Still clean and he had ten floors to go. The three continued their clearing pattern. Floors flew by, 5, 6, 7. At the tenth floor Krauss checked the tester again. It looked green still and they had four more floors, but he didn't want to risk it. "I'm calling it here. You two are to wait for me, if you hear anything make sure get out of here as fast as possible."

Ruby went to forge on anyways but was immediately stopped by Krauss.

"Krauss I want to."

"NO. Both of you will wait at the ground floor. I will not be responsible for your deaths. Blake make sure she does not follow me. I'm trained to deal with poisonous gases, you are not." Krauss started his run again the floors flashed by 11, 12, now specks of red showed on the tester. 13, the stick was mostly red and he could feel it burning his exposed skin now. He really hoped the medicals knew how to fix chemical burns.

The door to the 14th floor stood before him, he pulled a grenade from his belt and took a deep breath as he pulled the pin. He whispered "Eins, zwei, drei."

With as much force as possible, he through his foot forward in the hardest kick of his life and kicked the door clean off its hinges and a good three feet away.

"sterben"

The grenade left his hand and flew into the center of the room as Krauss duck back around the door. Three seconds later it exploded sending a blizzard of shrapnel everywhere. Krauss flipped back into the room rifle raised and hunting. Spotting something man shaped through the smoke and gas he opened fire. After performing a flawless mag dump he ducked into cover and reloaded. Popping up again he scanned the room, no targets and no return fire. Approaching his target, he began to see that it was a server bank and not a He toggled his radio and called in. "Actual-three, the see-see-tee is a bust. I'll start the fans up now." As it is well known, poison gas is kinda hard to get rid of. Krauss's idea was to simply push the poison out and let it disperse high up hopefully leaving everything below unharmed. As he started the fans he realized he had not received an acknowledgment from anyone. He quickly grabbed his radio.

"Actual-three come in." Krauss got nothing back "son of a bitch…"

he bolted through the ruined door frame and down the tower. As he half ran half fell down the stairs he tried to contact Ozpin. "Ozpin! Ozpin! We have a serious problem."


End file.
